Page 112 of Wicked Nightmare

Lakey's head snapped up. "The button's an activator."

I turned to Beaver. "Alright, buddy. Time for you to spill. Who else has access to these patients' locations?"

Beaver clenched his jaw, but the fear was there. "It's... it's all stored in a central locator system. At headquarters."

"And where might that be?" I leaned in close, my breath on his face.

He swallowed. "I can't... I won't tell you that."

I chuckled. "Wrong answer, pal. Let's try something else. You got one of these fancy neural chips too? Your GPS suggests you do. I can see two blinking dots and we sure as fuck don't have them."

Beaver nodded, reluctant. "Yeah. Standard procedure after... after Patient X and Y escaped."

Lakey's laughter shattered whatever composure he had left. That manic giggle. My favorite one.

"Oh, honey." She grabbed his hair, crouching down to his eye level. "You have no fucking clue who we are, do you?"

Beaver's eyes darted between us. Panic. Real, full panic. "You're... you're psychopaths. Murderers. A bulletin was put out on two nuts who were on a warpath."

Her grin widened. "Oh, we're so much more than that, sugar. Cam, should we tell him?"

I matched her grin. "Why not? Might as well let the poor bastard know just how fucked he really is."

She turned back to Beaver, her voice melodic. "Guess what, chomps? You're looking at the one and only Patient X and Y. And babe, you are so, so fucked."

The color drained from his face. For someone entrusted with valuable information, he was a bit slow. The realization hit him in stages. First confusion, then disbelief, then the dawning horror of understanding that he'd broken into the apartment of the two people his organization feared most, armed with nothing but a beeper and a crush on a girl he was supposed to be guarding.

Part of me almost felt bad for the guy.

Lakey's eyes had that glazed look. "Cam, baby," she said, "let's put our new friend on the table. I'm thinking it's time for our little impromptu surgery."

"Now that's what I call a great idea, sweetheart."

Grabbing Beaver by his shoulders, I cut off his ties and hauled him onto the kitchen table. He squirmed and kicked, but he was no match for me on his best day, and this was very far from his best day. With a grunt, I flipped him over, pinning him face-down. Rose was there in a flash, grabbing new zip ties and fixing his arms to the table legs before linking a few ties together and doing the same to his ankles. He looked like a turtle, all splayed out, his face pressed against the wood where we'd been eating grilled cheese six hours ago.

"Hold still, buddy," I said. "Trust me, you don't want us to slip."

Lakey was practically bouncing, a wicked smile on her lips. "I've always wanted to play doctor," she giggled, reaching for one of her knives.

But something made me pause. If the remote was an activator, then theoretically we didn't need to cut the chip out. We just needed to disable it. Sever the antenna wire and the signal dies. Still, figuring out the mechanics would be useful for Rose. Either way, I caught Lakey's wrist before she could start carving.

"Hold up, sugar," I said. "I've got an idea. What if I can disable the tracker without cracking his skull wide open? Might be cleaner."

Her bottom lip jutted out. "But where's the fun in that?"

I pulled her close, my mouth against her ear. "Tell you what. If this doesn't work, you get first dibs on the cutting. Deal?"

She sighed dramatically, but I could see the smile fighting through. "Fine. But you better make it quick. You said I could do it and I'm not happy that you lied."

"I didn't lie, I just... you're a bit impulsive, babe. We need to actually try to not kill him." She huffed and crossed her arms, pinning me with a stare. Yeah, I was gonna pay for that later.

Examining the back of his head, I found it. A small wire, thin, barely visible, hidden in his hairline. Same as Rose's. I pinched it between my fingers and tugged. It didn't give. Just stretched the skin and made him scream through the sock.

"Sooo... we can cut his head open, right?" Lakey said. She grabbed another dirty sock off the floor and shoved it deeper into his mouth. He gagged around it, his eyes watering.

Pretty sure I wiped baby juice off on that sock.

I took a deep breath. Steadied my hand. Pressed the tip of the curved blade to Beaver's skull. His muffled screams were still pretty loud as I made the first incision. Blood welled up, warm and sticky against my fingers. The cut had to be careful, precise, just deep enough to expose the wire without going into the bone. This wasn't a kill. This was information gathering. Practice for Rose.