“Then let’s pretend that you just rolled up on me in the dark armed and ready to attack.”
“Don’t have to pretend that part,” Ezra snarled, then grimaced. “How fucking hard did you hit me?”
“Hard enough,” I commented. If we were gonna keep this up… My phone buzzed and I pulled it out to look at it.
Rome: Getting food. Coffee. Need a shovel?
I didn’t laugh. It was tempting, but I didn’t. I did answer though.
Me: Food and coffee are great. Thanks.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t still bring a shovel, but I hoped we wouldn’t need it. Ezra continued to glower at me, I just opened up another bottle of water and took a drink. Hoped Rome hadn’t had to go far for the coffee.
“Well?” Ezra demanded and I spared him a look.
“Are you ready to talk and stop hurling insults and generally acting like a jackass?”
The other man’s expression darkened. That would be a no.
Right. My phone rang and I frowned at the unknown number. This wasn’t my Royals phone. I rose, pointed Ezra’s gun at him and hit answer.
“Yes?” I kept it short and to the point. Ezra’s eyes widened.
“Fuck me,” Freddie said. The tension banding me snapped like so many rubber bands breaking. “Trying to find a phone to make a fucking call is a joke.”
It was just before six in the morning. Didn’t matter. It was damn good to hear from him. “Heard there was trouble.” I had to watch what I said because we had an audience. No way I was betraying Emersyn to Ezra. Like I said, I liked the guy but she wasn’t negotiable.
“Hey,” Freddie countered. “It’s me! What trouble could it be?”
“Do you want that in order of occurrence or alphabetically?”
“Fuck you too, big bro,” he said in a half-cheerful tone. “The assholes wouldn’t let me use a phone. I’ve been trying, then I’ve been trying to find one I could use here. They’ve got them all coded. It’s stupid. Finally lifted a cell phone.”
Great. Someone was going to be missing it. “And you called me first?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they can’t—”
I growled a sound, cause I couldn’t just snap his name. “Get to the point. I have company.”
Silence. “Good company or bad company?”
“To be decided.”
“I found her.”
Thank fuck.
“She’s messed up and I’m working on a plan. We need to get her out of here sooner rather than later.”
“What do you need?”
“Shit,” Freddie swore, then the call ended.
Discipline was the only thing that kept me from throwing the phone. I had the number that called me. I knew where they were. We’d wanted to avoid guns blazing, didn’t mean I wasn’t willing to do it.
“Problems?” Ezra taunted.
I just stared at him. “What the fuck do you want?” Because I didn’t have time for this game.
“Just tell me if you’re having problems or not.” The demand seemed almost ludicrous considering he was the one tied up.
“Yes,” I told him. “Happy?”
“No.” Exhaling, Ezra said, “Adam’s missing.”
Fuck.
“And then they took—” He edited himself. “You know fuck it, then someone took Lainey.”
Me.
Took Lainey.
That was why I’d known the damn name.
“So, we both have problems.”
CHAPTER 26
FREDDIE
“She’s messed up and I’m working on a plan. We need to get her out of here sooner rather than later.” Understatement of the year. I hadn’t brought up her confession once since she’d offered it. Nor had she brought up mine. But as bad as my story was, at least I hadn’t been related to any of those assholes, no matter what they wanted me to call them.
“What do you need?” The all-business attitude really helped. I was running late to get back to my room, but the fact they weren’t letting me call anyone and I hadn’t heard from the guys since I got here made this critical.
The door to the community room opened. It was dumb luck I’d found the damn cell in their office. I’d checked every single time after seeing Emersyn, but tonight, I’d found one. Taking it back to my room was an option, but not the best one.
“Shit,” I swore, ending the call and hiding the phone. There was no way to move, so I just stood where I was when Amber the bitchy nurse walked in. She gave a start when she saw me and her eyes narrowed.
“What are you doing here?” She immediately looked at the clock on the wall and I shrugged. Not saying anything bought me some time and just zoning out like I was stoned—lots of practice with that—might give me a bit more. I had to get rid of the phone or the nurse.
I had better chances with the phone, but this bitch’s eyes narrowed. She took another step toward me. Sweat dotted the back of my neck. Some people just had that vicious air about them, a coldness that didn’t allow for any kind of compassion. Amber the nurse definitely fell into that category. Unlike the overly warm grandma that hovered around Emersyn, Amber was an ice queen.
Whatever brought her into the field of nursing, it had nothing to do with taking care of people. Then again, very little about this place seemed geared to making people better. Docile. Compliant. What had Emersyn said? Compliance. Cooperation. Silence.
Yeah. They didn’t want to hear from the people here. They wanted them quiet.
“You’re not supposed to be in here,” Amber said, narrowing the gap between us. “In fact, you shouldn’t even be out of your room. The door behind her opened to let another guy in. I didn’t know this one, but he was dressed in the same white clothes the other orderlies wore.
He missed a step. “What the fuck?”
“I don’t know what he’s doing here,” Amber whispered, teeth grinding. “He shouldn’t be here.”
I didn’t respond to either of them, just kept sort of swaying in place. The new guy approached and he glanced from me to her then back. “How did you get in here?”
Yeah, didn’t answer her. Not gonna answer you.
“Shit,” the guy said as he began to back up. “This is not good.”
“Shut up,” Amber barked in a sharp tone. “He’s checked out. Look.” When she snapped her fingers in my face, I didn’t flinch or look at them. The sweat dripping down my back wouldn’t fool anyone, but I kept my attention off-focus. Maybe they’d hustle me back to my room and that would be that.
Might take a day or two and cool it, except I had no intentions of leaving Boo-Boo trapped on her own. Especially since these fuckers were strapping her to her bed. Sick bastards.
“We can take care of this.”
“Yeah, I came here to do the pill swap, not to deal with one of their overpriced paper dolls.”
Paper dolls?
“Yeah well, he’s a classic fuckup. Big on the drug abuse. Broderick told me all about him. We can deal with him and probably pick up a bonus while we’re at it.”