Pictures of everything I’ve ever loved in my life flash before my eyes, every single one an image of Dove.
23
Forcing air into my lungs, I focus on each step I take. The last thing I want to do is trip and fall or injure myself. I’m not sure who is after us, but I don’t want to find out. The fear in Zane’s eyes was enough for me to stop asking questions and just listen.
I should be jumping for joy right now, planning my escape, but I can’t even consider that knowing that Zane is back there going through god knows what. Yes, I know I should feel different, but I can’t. I just can’t. My stomach churns when I think about something bad happening to him. Shit, I think I’m going to be sick. Gripping onto the metal railing, I stop on the stairs and gulp precious oxygen into my lungs.
It feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest. Like no matter how much air I breathe in, I’m never really catching my breath. A door opens a flight above me, and I force my feet to move, carrying me down the stairs. I don’t make it but a few feet before I hear someone descending the steps. No. Not someone, there are two sets of footsteps. Two people.
“You can run, but you can’t hide…” That voice is like nails on a chalkboard, and fear trickles down my spine at the sound. Immediately, I start running down the steps. I need to get out of this stairwell. It’s like a trap. If I stay here, I’m as good as caught. Dead.
When I get to the bottom floor, I grab the door handle and twist it open. Cold air whips through my hair as I make it outside. The door falls shut behind me and I get ready to start running down the street when I stop dead in my tracks. Two men standing a mere ten feet away, smiles that promise horrible things on their faces.
What do I do? Where do I go?
Like a trapped mouse, I look for a way out, but there isn’t one. I can’t go back into the stairwell. I can’t go forward either.
“Give it up, baby, just come with us, and maybe we’ll take it easy on you… maybe we won’t kill you right away. We can always have a little fun, give you a little pleasure…”
My eyes dart around the space, there is nowhere to go. I’m trapped. Zane told me to run, to hide. I can’t die like this. I won’t die like this.
“Don’t even think about it.” If his voice didn’t scare me half to death, the scar running from eye to chin on his face would.
What do I do? I feel the panic rising, bubbling over inside of me. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. This is bad. Something terrible is going to happen. Zane was right. He was right. The next moment, the door behind me opens and the before I can turn around a hand slams over my lips while an arm wraps around my middle.
Releasing a blood-curdling scream, I struggle with all my might, kicking my legs and flailing in his grasp. One kick must hit its mark because a second later, the guy releases me, a harsh fuck filling my ears. I don’t think I just start running. I make it all of ten feet before I’m cut off. My lungs burn, and my muscles are tense, fear and panic overtake my body. It’s fight or die, and I can’t die yet.
“We told you we’d take it easy on you if you were a good girl, but of course, you couldn’t come quietly… looks like we have to do things the hard way.” One of the men pulls out a gun, and I open my mouth to scream, but the sound never comes. Before I can react, he’s on me, the butt of his gun flashes over my vision before it connects with the side of my head. Crumpling to the ground, the entire world goes dark around me.
When I come to, my entire body is throbbing, and my head feels like someone ran it over with a bus. Blinking my eyes open, I resist the urge to cringe at the bright light dangling above my head. What the— I don’t finish the thought as I realize by looking down at my hands that I’m tied to a chair, my wrists bound to the arms. Flickering through my memories, I try and recollect how I got here.
Donna. Hospital. Zane. Knocked out.
“Help! Someone help!” I call out to anyone who might hear me while pulling against the ropes that bind me to the chair. I need to find Zane, need to get out of here and away from these people. A soft chuckle fills the room, and I whip my head around, looking for the person the voice belongs to, but I don’t see anyone. Darkness surrounds me, except for the tiny light hanging above my head. I try and swallow down my fear, but it’s suffocating me.
“Well, hello, Dove.” A man appears before me, he looks like a mobster, in a nice suit. His beady eyes trail over my body, and I can feel every single movement. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, granted it’s not under the best circumstances.” He motions to the rope and chair. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t offer you better accommodations. I’m Christian,” he says his name like I should know it.
“Where is Zane? Where am I? Why did you take me?” The questions pour out of me like an overflowing sink. I doubt this man will give me an answer, but I still ask. I have to.
“Zane?” He leans into my face, and I crane my head back to put some distance between us. The man’s voice smells of liquor, and that only intensifies my fear. Tremors wrack my body, and I start to shake as if I’m cold. “Zane is dead. I left his body back in the parking garage.” He pauses as if to take in my facial expression. Then his lips curl up into a tiny smirk as he watches me take in what he just told me.
Zane is dead. My chest tightens, and my heart hurts. I feel like a piece of my soul shatters. Rationally, I shouldn’t care if he’s dead, but for some reason, I feel connected to him. Like I’ve known him my entire life.
“I mean, it really is such a shame that he dies after all this time. It took you so many years to find each other again just for him to leave you...” Christian frowns, and then without warning, he reaches out and grabs me by the back of the neck, his fingers digging into the tender flesh hard enough to leave bruises.
“I… I don’t… understand. What are you talking about?” Confusion swirls. “I don’t know Zane. He kidnapped me, and…” The words keep coming until Christian squeezes the back of my neck so hard the words cut off, and pain consumes me.
“Don’t lie to me, you little bitch. I know all about your connection to Zane. It took me long enough, but I finally figured it out.”
He pulls back my head and stares directly into my eyes. He must see my genuine confusion because a moment later, he lets out a humorless laugh I feel in my bones.
“You really don’t know, do you? Does the name William ring a bell?”
Now I’m even more confused. How does he know about William, and what does he have to do with anything? The information isn’t adding up in my brain, or maybe I just don’t care to try and add it together.
“William… he’s dead. I saw him die… I was there.”
“He didn’t die, sweetheart. He recovered, and a few months later, he went back and killed your foster dad in cold blood. William Zane Brennen was a born killer, and that’s exactly why I hired him.”
Like an atomic bomb, everything around me explodes.
Zane is William.
William is Zane.
Christian shakes me by my neck, dragging me out of my own mind.