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It’s not long before Neil is back, but this time, he says nothing. I try to keep the fear out of my eyes as he approaches, syringe in hand, but I have a feeling I have failed.
The last thing I see as my vision darkens is his black eyes watching me.
Nausea is what wakes me this time. Actually, me puking on myself to be more exact. I sputter and cough as bile burns my throat and mouth, dripping down my face and onto my naked chest. Cold cement bites my skin.
Naked.
Shit.
My eyes open slightly more than a crack, and I groan as the pounding in my skull intensifies. The room is dark enough that my eyes adjust quickly. I feel my heart drop as I see a blonde girl in a cell across from me.Just like the one I’m in. Curled up in a ball, she looks at me, but her expression doesn’t change.
In it, I see pain. Hopelessness.
The dark rings around her eyes and sunken look to her cheeks tell me more than I care to know. The bruises dotting her pale naked skin are bright even under the dim light.
I let out a humorless laugh and sit back, pressing my cheek to the cold wall. My eyes wander the bare room, the drain in the corner and the stained cot.
The mention of a shipment, the girls, all of it makes sense.
I was just stupid enough to underestimate my opponent. I thought they were just party boys, but it would appear Neil has much dirtier fingers than I ever realized. Even my past experience with them, the days I spent under their thumb, should have warned me.
I’m a fucking idiot.
Shuffling forward, I look at the woman across from me.
“Hey.”
My voice is quiet but still carries lightly through the room. She turns her head a fraction toward me before it drops back into its sedated place.
“Hey,” I try again, going to the front of the cell and grasping the rusted bars.
She turns her head toward me this time and stares at my face.
“Who are you? Where are we?”
She blinks. I nod at her encouragingly.
I’m not sure she even heard me at all until she finally speaks, her broken Eastern European accent telling me even more. “Hell. We in hell.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Wind and Leaves
Killian
I sit in my car, watching the front door of Eternity as though she’ll magically appear out of it. My mind is warring with options and ideas, each as shitty and unlikely as the last.
Echo doesn’t have time for this. Think. Think….
What am I missing?
My mind isn’t working as well as it should, running on no sleep or sustenance. Stopping for shit like that is absolutely out of the question. My discomfort means nothing compared to what I imagine Echo went through. Will go through. Is going through.
Again.
I think I black out for a few minutes. The images racing through my mind threaten to unravel me. By the time I realize where I am again, my knuckles are white, gripped as they are against the wheel.
It’s in your head, I remind myself.Calm down. Get your shit together. For her.
