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25
Gideon
The punch knockedout my breath and left me panting on the floor. The two Storm men who’d dragged me across the hall kicked at me a few more times.
“Look at this weakling,” one of them sneered. “Some bait. Who would bother coming for him?”
They stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind them. A deadbolt clicked over.
I tried to move my arms, but my lungs were burning. My breath was coming in strangled gasps now. When Xavier had ordered them to grab me, I’d tried to fight, tried to make a run for it—anything would have been better than ending up tied up and imprisoned like this. Better that they’d shot me than using me as a lure so they could kill everyone else too.
But I hadn’t made it, and the effort had left me straining just to draw enough oxygen not to black out.
As I wheezed and coughed, my vision swam. Dark dots speckled it.
The image of Roy’s slack face, his eyes staring glassy and unseeing, rose up. Blood staining his shirt and seeping over the floor. His dead body limp where the Storm’s people had shot him. My stomach clenched almost as tight as my chest.
Fuck. Fuck. I’d been so close, but I hadn’t made it, and one of our allies had died over my risky plan. It’d been my idea—I’d convinced Wylder. I’d convinced them all, and now look where I’d gotten myself.
Imight die before Wylder even tried to get me out of here if I couldn’t manage to drag more air into my lungs.
Each labored inhalation filled my nose and mouth with a stink like rotten cheese, which only made me feel sicker. Just breathe, I told myself. Just fucking breathe, Gideon.
If only it were so fucking easy. My lungs were shuddering as if threatening to collapse on themselves, and my pulse was going haywire. Sweat beaded on my forehead. The darkness crept in on my sight.
I had to snap out of this. I had to get my stupid, broken body under control.
I’d managed it before. A different memory wavered through my mind: Mercy, talking me down from an attack in my office just a few weeks ago. The unexpected softening of her tone, the assurance with which she’d spoken. The words came back to me, washing through my nerves.
Listen to me. Just focus on my voice. You’re the smartest person I know. We’ll work this out.
She wasn’t here for me to really listen to her, but I took her advice as well as I could in my addled state. I thought of the kiss she’d given me before I’d left the van and the smile she’d offered afterward. Of her vehemence when she’d insisted she wasn’t leaving her home to the Storm. Of the other kinds of passion she’d shown me.
I want to ride my dark god and do his bidding.
I’d felt so powerful in that moment with her in my bed, powerful and capable and wanting to do whatever I could to please her at the same time… She brought out something in me I didn’t recognize, something no one else ever had. But it was good.
Abruptly I realized that the burning in my chest was subsiding. My breaths still snagged in my lungs, but it wasn’t quite as hard to pull in enough air to stay alert. My vision had cleared. I wasn’t outright wheezing anymore.
I lay still for several more minutes until my breathing evened out completely and my thoughts had unjumbled. A pang of affection shot through me.
Mercy had managed to be here for me even when she was nowhere nearby.
That was only my most immediate problem solved. A searing mix of guilt and panic trickled through my veins. I was still being held captive by our worst enemies. I’d still brought Roy to his death. I’d managed to send all the data I could scrape off the laptop I’d found back to my own computer, but I hadn’t been quite fast or careful enough. They’d caught us before we could get out of there, and because of that I’d become an epic liability.
Because I knew my best friend. It might have been easier to leave me for dead—they had to realize that coming for me would be walking into a trap—but Wylder would never accept that. He’d come. And no doubt Mercy, Kaige, and Rowan would be right by his side ready to fight for me too.
Why the fuck had I ever thought I should step away from my devices and my screens to venture right into the lion’s den? Total madness.
But I was here now. I was still alive. If there was any way I could turn this situation around, I had to find it, not lie here moping about my failure. Otherwise I really would be less than worthless.
With my hands tied behind my back, it took a little effort just to roll onto my side so I could take stock of the room. The space was small and dingy, with a matted carpet and thick curtains blotting out most of the light from the window at the other end. The only furniture was a bed with a stripped mattress and a boxy end table next to it. It didn’t look like it’d been the nicest place even when the hotel had been open.
I couldn’t hear a peep of sound from outside. Whatever Xavier and his goons were doing now, they didn’t seem to be worried about me.
But maybe they should have been. As I squirmed and sat up, it occurred to me that I still had a couple of my devices on me. The goons hadn’t patted me down all that carefully, only looking for anything large enough to be a weapon.
I’d shoved a couple of my tiniest trackers in my hip pocket in case I saw something good to stick them on, and those hadn’t been found. Maybe I could do something useful with the trackers and get even more information to help the Nobles crush these pricks.
