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“Thanks for assisting us today,” Blake said.
“We need to get to Desert Cove Psychiatric Hospital,” Luke said. “How fast can you get us there?”
Agent Bradford entered the location into his GPS, then turned to look back at Luke and Blake who were sitting in the backseat. “Looks like it’ll take about forty five minutes.”
Luke nodded. He wished they could get there faster, but Caden and his friends were already doing everything in their power to help him find and get to Orly. “Thanks.”
He sat back, leaning his head against the headrest of the seat, as the car started moving. Caden pulled out his cellphone and placed a call to a judge that owed him a favor. When he ended the call, Caden simply said, “got the warrant. The place is ours as soon as we get there.”
Relieved that things were starting to go in their favor, Luke let his mind drift to Orly. I’m on my way. Just hang in there for me. I’ll be there before you know it. How are you feeling? He was almost afraid to ask, and he planned on getting her to a hospital as soon as possible. But they were still almost an hour away.
I’m okay. I’ll just be glad when this is all over. The vent keeps blowing cold air on me. I’m so cold.
Goosebumps covered Luke’s skin, and he knew they were hers. He shook off the slight chill, and tightened his arms across his chest. He was glad her guard was down, but feeling everything she was going through was keeping him on the razor’s edge of his own limits, because there was nothing he could do about it until he got there. He focused on staying calm, steadying his breaths, and sending her as many positive thoughts and memories as he could.
Several minutes later, they were speeding down the freeway, using the carpool lane whenever possible, when Luke felt the heartbreaking chill of surrender creep up the back of his neck. No. Orly, don’t you dare give up on me now. I’ll be there in like fifteen minutes. Please hang on for me.
Sadness billowed off her like plumes of thick smoke, as her fear nearly suffocated him, even as he tried to hide the gasping breaths he couldn’t quite draw deep enough into his lungs. But it was her next words that threatened to undo him.
Russell just got here.
Chapter 32
The sense of relief Orly felt when Luke told her that he was on his way drained from her body the moment the steel door opened, and Russell walked in. He wore a dark suit, with a maroon colored tie, and a white dress shirt. His hair was a bit longer than she remembered, and he had it combed to the side. He looked her over with a cocky grin, until their gaze met. “Have you ever set a mouse trap?” He asked. “I haven’t, but I imagine this is what it must feel like when someone sets a trap, and then comes back to find the rodent satisfyingly incapacitated. How does it feel to be my mouse, Orly?”
She swallowed and tried to avert her eyes, but he held her gaze with a punishing stare. “Did you really think you could just run away from me, Orly? Do you even know who I am? What I can do? The people I can find?”
Orly was no longer impressed by his ability as a captain, since he so obviously took great pleasure in ruining people’s lives. She turned her head away from him, not wanting to see the man she once loved, transformed into this monster standing before her. When had he become like this? Was it her fault? Had her gift really been the cause of his undoing? All of their troubles started after she’d told him about what she could do, but surely he had to have been like this before then. She’d always known him to be the controlling, overachieving, dominating man he was, but before he’d killed that woman, she’d made excuses for him, giving him the benefit of the doubt. She’d thought of his methods as protective and even necessary. It had taken seeing the evil in his eyes when he shot an unarmed woman to make her see him for who he truly was. A monster.
In a move that shouldn’t have surprised Orly after the way he’d treated her before she left him, Russell backhanded her across the face when she refused to answer him. Her head jerked from the force, and she bit back a cry just as his bruising fingers grabbed her jaw and forcefully turned her head to face him. “Answer me.” He demanded, his dark eyes glaring at her.
She grimaced and gritted her teeth before returning his glare. “I know exactly who you are and what you’re capable of.” There was no way she’d ever let him see her fear or the way her hands trembled in the restraints at the mere thought of what he likely had in store for her. But she was done making excuses for him. Apologizing for him. Russell Graham was his own man, and from where she lay, he wasn’t much of a man at all.
To her surprise, Russell actually looked pleased by her answer, and took a step back, a smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. He bumped into the machine that looked like the torture device Orly knew it to be from what the other guy had told her about it. “So,” Russell said, adjusting his tie. “Who’s been taking up residence in your head lately? I hear there’s a Dallas Detective you fancy? Is he the one that barged into your head at the luncheon? Or are you just unable to keep your head and hands to yourself, like the little witch and slut I know you are?”
Orly wasn’t affected by Russell’s words the way she used to be, but she hated that he was mentioning Luke, even if he didn’t call him by name. “I left you the day you killed that woman. Anything I’ve done since -”
Another hard slap across her face made her head jerk to the side. Pain bloomed across her cheek, and her eye felt like it was going to explode from the inside out. “We both know what happens when you talk to me like that. I’d say I’ve earned your respect, you ungrateful little witch.”
She ignored the pain and glared at Russell with all the strength she had left in her. He might be angry with her, but she was just as pissed off at him. “You lied to me,” she accused. “You never told me I had a brother.”
Russell’s eyes widened, shimmering with sadistic approval. “I see your conversation with Nelson went well. I started digging into your past after you tried to leave me the first time. Imagine my surprise when I found out you had a twin brother. Of course, I had no idea you two shared more than just DNA, but I took a gamble and it panned out.”
“You had him killed,” she said, not even caring if it cost her another slap to the face. There was no doubt in her mind Russell had ordered Nelson’s death. “You knew who he was, and you had him killed!” Her anger boiled over, giving her strength she didn’t know she still had left within her. “But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since killing innocent people seems to be your thing.”
Russell narrowed his eyebrows as his pupils turned black like coal, ready to burn her with just a glance. “The man was a lunatic. Innocent is the last word I’d use to describe him. Not that it matters. You do realize his death is all your fault. If only you’d stayed out of people’s heads, we wouldn’t be here right now. We’d be married and happy. I could’ve given you the kind of life every woman dreams of. But no, you had to go and ruin it for both of us. As for Nelson, he had your ability, and he’d been in your head. I couldn’t risk him telling anyone what he’d learned.” When Orly didn’t say anything, he went on. “Speaking of which, what did you tell him about us? Did you tell your little cop friend about me, too?”
When Orly didn’t answer, Russell turned to face the machine behind him and using his knuckle, probably to avoid leaving fingerprints, flipped a switch. The monstrosity beeped to life with multiple red and green flashing lights. “So, your plan is to torture me?” She asked, keeping the tremble out of her voice as much as she could. She wouldn’t put it past him to do exactly that, though how he could do that to her, to someone he once claimed to love, made her wonder how she could’ve ever loved him. How could she not have seen the monster behind the facade all those months she’d thought they were happy and in love?
Russell shrugged in answer to her question like it was no big deal. Like he wasn’t about to inflict unspeakable pain and torture on the woman he’d put a ring on, and was ready to marry, committing to love, honor, and cherish her for the rest of his life. “If I have to,” he said, nonchalantly. “I can’t have someone out there knowing things about me they shouldn’t know.” Russell used the same knuckle to turn a knob on the machine, then looked at her with a blank, dead stare. It was almost like he’d put on a mask that hid any and all emotion, even his rage that she knew was simmering just beneath the surface. “So, what did you tell your little detective?”
There wasn’t a chance in hell Orly would ever tell Russell anything, especially if it put Luke and his friends in danger. She was about to tell Russell to take a hike when the large vent that had been blowing cold air on her suddenly gave way, and pummeled to the ground with a loud clang. A large figure followed, landing with a thump, and rolling to absorb the shock before coming up to full height and raising a gun at Russell.
Luke! You came.
***
I’ll always come for you. The reassuring words easily slipped out just as his gaze landed on her small, vulnerable form. She was restrained to some medical chair, and the buttons of her blouse were open haphazardly with electrodes stuck to her skin. There was a large bruise already forming on her cheek, and Luke swore under his breath. Not only had someone touched what was his, they’d left a mark on her.
