I was about to wound—perhaps mortally—another person.
“You have no choice,” Colin whispered.
Had I said those thoughts out loud? Or could he just read the tormented expression I probably had on my face?
Didn’t matter. He knew. And he understood. He’d been through a hundred times worse than what we were going through now.
Once more, I gathered my courage, my cut itching and throbbing. I reached into my shirt and pulled the blade out from my bra.
My friend…
Tingles shot through me, and my fingers itched to descend to the bandage on my thigh. I could easily sweep my sweatpants over my hips and slice into myself again.
Easily.
So easily.
“Ready?” Colin said.
“Thank you,” I mouthed.
He cocked his head at me. He had no idea why I was thanking him, of course. He was my focal point. He was keeping me focused, and I was eternally grateful.
I suppressed the shivers that threatened to overtake me as I walked as quietly as I could out the door and toward the lump on the bed that was Alex.
The blade flamed between my fingers, growing hotter, hotter the closer I got to its target.
Did Alex feel the tingles, the thrilling sensation? The torturous pleasure at knowing she was about to be cut into?
I didn’t.
Seemed I only got that when I was about to cut into myself.
Instead, jitters tormented me—jitters, and shivers, and shakes.
Closer. I walked closer. Her chest rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and fell…
Colin was behind me. I motioned for him to escape, get out the door.
Still, he stayed next to me.
A nice gesture. He didn’t want me to be alone while I potentially ended another human life. Gentlemanly of him. I’d have felt better, though, if he’d have just gotten away. He could run and find help.
Again, I motioned for him to leave.
Again, he didn’t.
These are my friends…
Do it. Do it. Do it.
I moved closer to Alex, my hand hovering above her.
Chapter Seventeen
Bryce
“Brad, is that you?”
For an instant, Talon lost his focus, and the thin man lunged toward him. I aimed to graze the bastard’s ankle and shot.
He cried out as he fell to the floor.
Talon went running toward the voice, while I dealt with the asshole on the ground. “Who else is here?”
No response.
“It’s a scratch. Answer, damn it, or the next bullet will go between your eyes.”
“No one. Just me and the old lady.”
The old lady.
Brad, is that you?
Brad Steel. Shit! We’d just found Daphne Steel!
“Where’s Marjorie?” I said through clenched teeth.
“I need medical help here!”
“You’re fine. If I’d wanted to kill you, I would have. Trust me.”
“Please. Call 9-1-1. Please.”
“You’ll get nothing until you tell me where Marjorie Steel is.” I grabbed his shirt collar. “I don’t give a shit if you bleed to death right here in this trash heap, got it? I only care about Marjorie, so start talking.”
“Down the road,” he gasped. “Next block over. Mobile…home…” His eyes fluttered closed.
What a fucking wuss. An ankle graze hurt like hell, for sure, but he wasn’t going to bleed out. I hadn’t hit an artery, for God’s sake. “Dude,” I said out loud, “you’re in the wrong business if you’re fainting from this.”
No response, but I couldn’t take the chance he was bluffing. I continued to hold my gun on him. “Tal! What do you have in there?”
“My mother. She passed out. I’m bringing her out.”
He emerged, carrying Daphne Steel as if she weighed no more than a child. In her arms, she clutched a realistic-looking doll. Marjorie had told me about the doll she called Angela, which had been Marj’s name at birth.
“Is she okay?” I asked.
“She’s far from okay. She’s messed up. But she’s alive. She was in a room that looked…” He shook his head. “This isn’t a meth lab at all. Her room was a replica of her room at the facility, right down to the bassinet for her doll. The abandoned meth lab is a cover. Fuck. I need to get her out of here.”
“We can’t go yet. Marjorie.”
“Ryan and Ruby are still on it. They can help you. I have to see to my mother.”
Marjorie was first on my mind, so I had a hard time understanding. But I’d do just about anything for my own mother, so I nodded. “Call them and tell them to meet me a block over. Dickless here says that’s where Marj is. He might be bluffing, for all I know.”
“He’s out cold,” Talon said.
“Maybe. I don’t trust him.”
“Looks out to me. I’ve got my mother. You go find Marj.” He tossed me the flashlight without so much as letting his mother drop.
I caught it easily. “Count on it.”
Talon carried his mother out of the room and then out of the mobile home. He’d have to carry her all the way to his truck, which was several blocks away by this time. He could do it. Talon had carried many wounded soldiers out of harm’s way in Iraq. He’d returned as a hero because of his actions.
I hurried back to the thin man, who was still passed out on the floor. “For God’s sake.” I quickly unbuttoned his shirt and removed it, ripping it into strips. I bandaged his wound. I’d call 9-1-1 on the way to Marjorie.
I hurried out. Next block over, he’d said. What the fuck did that mean?
Didn’t matter. I had to find Marjorie. I had to.
And I would.
Or I’d die trying.
Chapter Eighteen
Marjorie
I trembled, my heart pounding.
These are my friends.
Do it! Do it! Do it!
Then I jerked.
Alex had moved ever so slightly.
“Easy,” Colin said quietly behind me.
I slowly brought my hand—
No. This blade. This friend. This friend who had seen me through some of the most difficult times in my life was not my friend.
It was all a lie.
Using this blade on myself didn’t make me stronger. It had made me weaker. Now I needed strength. I needed the strength to save myself, but the blade didn’t give me that.
Still, I had to.
Had to…
Alex jerked upward. “Fuck! What’s going on?”
Do it. Do it. Do it.
But I froze. I fucking froze.
Only seconds before Alex would get her bearings. Do it! Do it! Do it!
But the blade was no longer in my hand. Colin had yanked it from me, slicing his own fingers in the process. “It’s okay,” he said to me. “Go.”
Then he lunged at Alex and jammed the blade into her throat.
Her scream rang through the air like a shrieking storm.
Still, I stood, immobile.
My friend.
No longer my friend.
Colin’s friend now, and though it had made me weak, this friend gave him strength. The strength to do what was necessary.
“Go!” Colin commanded again. “Go!”