Page 17 of Barinov

A scorching rush tears through my chest, bleeding out until it reaches the tips of my fingers and the soles of my feet.

“We need Sabine,” Knox finishes quietly, cringing once more at the gruesome video. “Now!”

Bella’s screaming abruptly cuts off. She’s panting, sweating, and trembling, but the convulsions slow. For a second she’s just breathing.

Barely.

The door to her room creaks open. Her head snaps over at the sound and she freezes.

“Zeke?” she cries, her voice splintering into something that sounds too much like relief. “It’s true. Y-you’re alive?”

He stops just inside the room, keeping his back to the camera.

“Hey, sis.”

The casualness of it all makes my skin crawl.

“W-w-where is he?” Her breath stutters. “Where the hell is Jack?”

I glance at Lex. “He’s got Jack?”

Lex shrugs. “Explains why it keeps going straight to voicemail.”

Zeke strides toward her, the wooden floorboards groaning under his weight with each step. “Don’t worry about him right now, Bells.”

Bella’s eyes drop to his hand. “W-what is that?” she whispers.

“Holy shit,” Tex breathes. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Jesus Christ,” Nate mutters.

Tightly gripped in Zeke’s hand, is a thick and heavy metal rod. The end glowing a dull, molten orange as heat ripples the air around it.

“No!” she cries. “No, Zeke. Please.” She scoots back in bed, her spine smashing against the headboard. “Y-y-you don’t have to do this.”

Zeke doesn’t react to her pleas. He doesn’t hesitate. After over two years apart, I expect a flicker, a spark—something. But there’s not a single trace of emotion in him. Just a dull, soulless emptiness toward his sister.

“I don’t have a choice, Bells.” His body jolts, his fingers scratch at the black-and-white metal around his neck. “No. No, I’m sorry,” he whispers to himself, shaking his head frantically. “I-I mean, I don’t have a choice, Izzy.”

“Izzy?” Bella sobs. “Zeke, what are you talking about?”

He inches toward her, the burning hot metal shaking slightly in his grip. She tries to move away. Her leg thrashes at the chain, but the bed doesn’t budge.

“Stop! Please. Zeke,” she hopelessly pleads to her big brother. “P-p-pleeeease. Don’t!”

A ragged sound escapes from deep in Lex’s chest. I grab his arm as his body jerks forward in a violent, reflexive lunge at the screen.

“Lex, stop!” I wail, my own muscles straining to hold back his massive frame.

“I’m going to kill him,” Lex grits, fists colliding with the table. He wraps his arms around me in a grip that’s suffocatingly tight. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“I know.” I nod.

I hear a quiet and devastated cry escape from my sister’s lips when Zeke reaches out for Bella. Haley’s too. Bella yelps when her brother grabs her left wrist and pins her arm down with brutal efficiency.

“Zeke! NO!” She claws at his arm, drawing blood, but he’s too strong.

The iron lowers.