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He grabbed the clamps and secured them to the headboard where my hands were chained. I couldn’t watch him methodically stalk around the bed, checking his work. I pretended I couldn’t feel it as he stroked a finger across my foot. I tried not to tense as he moved back to the machine with ominous switches and dials that would bring me nothing but pain. I forgave myself for the jerk of panic when he casually flipped the switch at the top to turn the machine on.
I’d thought the feeling zipping through me when Decker touched me had been electricity. I would never make that comparison again as excruciating fire shot through every cell of my body. My muscles seized to the point I could have sworn my bones creaked, and a guttural scream tore through the quiet room. If I’d been able to focus on anything but the pain exploding from the inside out, I would have known that it had been my scream. But I was fully consumed by the white hot pain, until it ebbed into nothingness. As I went under, I prayed that I wouldn’t wake up again. I would take death’s hand and walk into the dark unknown if it just meant escaping this room for good.
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DECKER
With the help of John Landow and the plane he’d chartered to get to New Jersey, we’d made it to Rhode Island in under an hour. Scout had been substituting for Kasey and had everything ready for us when we’d landed. Cabot, Fitz and I were followed by Jones and three others as we piled into the pair of SUVs that had been waiting on the tarmac. If she didn’t have a job already, I would have hired her for Remington. The drivers of both vehicles were also there to help us search the property and engage Parker if necessary.
“If that MMA fiance of Scout’s doesn't make it, I’m calling dibs,” Cabot said as he turned his phone toward us. She’d sent over the blueprint of the house with a simple note to stay safe. I pulled the phone from him and studied the single story home with a basement that looked like it was little more than storage. The house wasn’t much, but the fact that it held significance for Parker, made it the best bet for keeping Lake and her father.
The cars stopped three houses down and every single man piled out and around to the back of the SUV farthest from the house. “Alright,” I said, voice low even with the distance. “We clear the main floor before the basement. If you see Parker, try to take him alive. If Lake isn’t here, we need information. If she is here…” I looked each man in the eye. “Take him the fuck out.” There were grunts and nods of agreement and we worked on splitting up into teams who would enter from either side of the house.
Sneaking through the dark toward the house, rifle in hand and ready, the flashes between past and present began, causing me to halt in order to shake it off. The men behind me halted as well and Fitz moved from the back toward me.
“We’re home,” he whispered. “We’re getting Lake.” I had a feeling my ability to hide my flashbacks was complete bullshit because he’d known what had stopped me in my tracks. He knew what to say to get my feet moving again.
When I made it to the door, I began the tedious task of picking the old lock on the front door. Stealth was the main objective of this mission. If Parker heard us kicking in doors, he’d be far more likely to use Lake as a hostage to leave or kill her on the spot. I opened the door slowly, thankful there had been no cry from the hinges as the door swung wide.
There was a straight shot from the front door to the back and I gave a single nod to Cabot heading up the second team as we entered silently and began to sweep the rooms. It hadn’t been difficult to see that no one had been hiding in the rooms or closets since the house was completely empty. Indents in the carpet the only evidence that this had even been a furnished home.
Our two groups merged together as we rounded into the kitchen toward the single door leading to the basement. Each step down stole another breath from my lungs as I prayed the steps wouldn’t creak under our feet. For an old house it had been quiet for us, but when I stepped into what had been drawn as a large open space, I stopped short at a ten by ten space leading to a large metal door.
Even through the metal door and cement wall dividing the space, I heard the anguished scream of pain and my feet were moving before I’d had time to process the sound entirely. The door had no lock and Cabot wasted no time grabbing the knob and nodding a three count to me before he pulled it wide and I entered. I had little more than an instant to take in the room, clocking Lake on a bed, Robert covered in red on a chair, and Dominic Parker standing next to a machine, trying to wrestle something from the back of his pants.
As if it were as simple as taking a breath, I raised the rifle and fired, feeling nothing but sick satisfaction at the spray of blood and brain matter against the wall as he fell. I was still trying to come back to humanity when I heard Fitz yell out a curse.
I turned to see that Lake was in nothing but her bra and panties, convulsing on the bed. There was an electrical snap in the air that died out as her body seemed to slump lifeless to the metal frame she was chained to. I was down next to her, sweeping the fallen strands from her face. Lake's face looked beaten and the bruise covering her chin and up the side of her jaw had tears pooling in my eyes.
Cabot was above the bed, pulling two clamps from the frame before working on the shackles that kept her secured down. With my attention back on Lake, I watched as her stomach rose and fell with shallow breaths. She wasn’t okay, but she was alive. The room around was chaotic as I focused on unchaining her feet. Then she was in my arms and I was running up the stairs toward the door. She woke through none of it, only laying limp and lifeless in my arms as an ambulance pulled into the driveway of the house and I sent a silent thank you into the heaven’s for Scout’s ability to anticipate everything.
I only released Lake into the care of the paramedics because the world had turned sideways on me and I knew I was going down. I didn’t remember falling, but I was on the ground with a paramedic hovering above me, yelling into my face. But there was no sound. Just the overwhelming relief of having her back. I reached my hand out across the driveway and blindly found her hand. I linked my fingers with her limp ones and let everything fade.
CHAPTER 35
DECKER
Lake hadn’t woken up since the night we found her. Three days of tests, examinations and doctors trying to assure me that she wasn’t brain dead, probably just exhausted and recovering from the stress she’d endured physically and mentally. I couldn’t imagine the horror she’d suffered while trapped with her psychotic brother for two days.
I’d seen the physical injuries, the fractured jaw and chipped teeth, the black eye and more than that, the deep slice through her leg that had only been stitched up completely after they’d disinfected it and ran antibiotics through her IV. The hardest part was watching the nurses treat and bandage the criss crossing burns along the back of her body. Lake’s skin had been in direct contact with the mesh of the bed frame when he’d electrocuted her. I’d shut down when the doctor had listed the injuries to her body, and it had taken Cabot repeating the word “superficial” for me to finally take a breath.
The Landows had pulled through again and paid for a private ambulance to transport the unconscious Lake to the hospital housing far too many of us. Evan had been released after Ellie had calmed him down. Apparently he’d been in combat mode and had some confusion upon waking up concussed with a fractured skull in a new place. Seeing his sister had been exactly what he needed to mentally click the pieces together.
Ryan Conway survived his gut wounds and was sharing his hospital bed 24/7 with Scout who only left him to check on progress with Lake. There hadn’t been anything new to report. After a day of coming in every hour to check, Scout had finally just hooked up a small camera in the room, so she could check in without jostling her fiance every time she got up for nothing.
Kasey had woken up the day we’d transported Lake, but according to Fitz, he wasn’t okay. Physically the doctors said it would be a slow healing process, but he was going to be fine. Mentally he was withdrawn after finding out that Dominic had only gotten into the building again because Kasey had forgotten to revoke his access. I had no intention of blaming him for anything that had happened, but he didn’t need others holding the blame. His guilt was suffocating him enough.
I’d wanted to go see him, to tell him that nothing was being held against him. I’d known how thin he was spread trying to put out fires everywhere, never delegating his work because there were few trusted enough and competent enough to do the work he did. I would have to change that soon. Not because I didn’t think he could do it, but because he shouldn’t have had to. But seeing him hadn’t happened yet. I couldn’t leave Lake alone for more than the time it took me to sneak into the bathroom for a quick piss before settling back into the chair at her side.
I was filthy, smelly, and bordering on insanity as I sat at her bedside for four days before her breath hitched. I snapped my eyes to her face to see her blankly staring at the ceiling. She was awake, eyes wide and mouth open just enough to suck in a gasp.
“Lake?” I was pushing up and into her line of sight at once, but as I put myself in her sight, she still seemed to look through me. She was awake, but she might as well have been in a coma with the emptiness in that blank gaze. “Come back to us, love. We’ve been waiting for you.” The words were whispered into her ear as I clocked the sound of running down the hall before Scout was huffing at the door trying to catch her breath. Apparently the camera had been a good idea.
“She’s awake but not… here.” I choked out, unable to control the emotion as I looked at my whole world, staring into nothingness.
Scout moved around the opposite side of the bed, stroking a hand down Lake’s hair as she looked into her eyes. There was a flinch from Lake that had her snatching her hand back and me leaning forward. I thought about the grounding techniques Fitz had taught her in the early days, and the pride on her face the last time she’d had an episode and came back while in my arms.
With deep breath, I picked her up from the bed, ignoring Scout’s protests. Careful of the burns along the back of her body, I climbed onto the hospital bed and held her against me. Exactly like I had that evening that seemed like a lifetime ago. I tucked her head under my chin, spread my hand across her thigh and slowly rocked her limp body, praying the contact would be enough. I whispered words of strength and encouragement just as I had before, this time telling her how much I’d fallen in love with her.
