Liz’s voice, her touch, wrenched him from the vision. Shuddering at what he’d seen, afraid to know what it meant, he pulled her close.
She held him as tightly. “What is it?”
Zeke looked at his brother. Worry pinched Jacob’s features. He pushed to his elbows. “Another vision?”
Zeke managed a swallow and nodded.
Liz eased back so they’d be face to face. “What did you see?”
“I don’t know,” he blurted, then growled, “I don’t fucking know.”
“Tell us,” Jacob said. “Maybe we can figure it out.”
“How?” Zeke tensed even more. “This so-called gift is a goddamn curse. How am I supposed to make sense of what I see?”
“Just tell us,” Jacob repeated, “and maybe we can—”
“I saw a woman’s hand holding a knife with blood on the blade. I have no idea whose blood it was. Then a man was using a scarf to strangle a woman. I don’t know who they are; I couldn’t see their faces. As Carreon watched, he kept repeating ‘Liz, Liz, Liz’.
“You were backing away from me,” Zeke said to her, speaking even faster. “Your cheeks were wet as though you’d been crying. Carreon wouldn’t let you go. Then I saw fire.”
Jacob frowned. “What kind of a fire?”
“The kind that destroys a body,” Zeke said. “I saw a woman’s legs. The flames touched her foot. She didn’t move.”
Jacob’s face lost too much color. He glanced at Liz. “Where did this happen—where’s it supposed to happen?”
“I don’t know,” Zeke said through his teeth.
Liz touched his arm. “Did you recognize anything in your vision from this stronghold?”
He thought back as well as he could and shook his head.
“From Carreon’s estate?” she prodded.
“I have no idea. The images flash by so quickly, I can’t concentrate on details.”
“Were the woman’s legs mine?”
“No.” He pulled her back into his arms, his breathing ragged with worry. “You’re not leaving here. You’re never leaving my side. I won’t allow—”
The pounding on the door stopped him.
“Zeke,” Ike called out. “Are you in there?”
“Oh shit, what now?” Jacob muttered.
“Yeah,” Zeke shouted to Ike. “Give me a minute.” He left the bed and pulled on his jeans. Jacob did the same. Once Liz was decent, Zeke opened the door.
Ike shifted from foot to foot, clearly agitated.
“What’s happened?” Zeke asked.
“We’re getting a transmission from Carreon.”
“What?” Liz blurted. “How could he send a transmission here? He doesn’t know where this place is.”
“He had someone hack into our systems,” Zeke said, then spoke to Ike. “Has he breached anything else?”
“No. He can only transmit to us. The rest of our systems are secure.”
Zeke touched Liz’s arm. “Stay here while Jacob and I—”
“I want to go with you. Please. I have a right to know what’s happening.”
“Dammit, I don’t want you to.”
“I know that.” She spoke far more softly than he had. “But how can I protect myself or my father if neither of us knows what’s going on? If something happens to you or Jacob am I supposed to simply guess what’s coming?”
“Nothing’s going to happen to any of us,” he argued. “You don’t have to protect me or Jacob. We’re supposed to do that for you.”
“Zeke, please, don’t do this to me.” She rested her fingertips on his cheek. “I need to be there. You need that too. I’m the only one who’s been with Carreon. I know what makes him tick. Whatever he says, I’ll be able to tell whether he’s lying or not.”
“She has a point,” Jacob said. “She should be there with us.”
“She has to,” Ike finally broke in. “Carreon insisted on it.”
Zeke frowned. “Why?”
Ike ran his hand over his mouth, then took a deep breath before continuing, “He’s threatening to murder a woman unless you and Liz meet with him.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
Zeke held back an oath. They followed Ike to the meeting room. On the table was a large monitor that hadn’t been there before. Kele and Diaz sat to the side of it, interrupted in their strategy to get Pedro. Next to them were Paul and the clan’s other young men who excelled in information technology. Their monitors showed what was on the larger screen. Both Kele and Diaz watched the transmission, their expressions troubled.
Zeke moved in front of the largest monitor and the camera that would transmit his image.
Carreon’s face filled the screen. His lobe was swollen and red from Liz having yanked off his earring, his throat and neck scored by her nails, his light eyes frosty with contempt. “Where’s Liz?”
She joined Zeke, standing next to him.
Carreon smiled.
Zeke took Liz’s hand. Her fingers were icy and shook slightly.
“I’ll make this brief,” Carreon said, then spoke to Liz. “You and your father are coming back to our clan. Where you belong.”
“Never,” Zeke said.
“Never?” Carreon mimicked, his smile deadly. “Don’t be so certain of that.” Again, he addressed Liz. “Do you want to see anyone die because of you?”
Zeke squeezed her fingers, a warning not to answer or play into Carreon’s sick game. “This transmission is over,” Zeke announced.
“Very well,” Carreon said. “If that’s the way you want it and you refuse to bargain, this is what’s going to happen.” He moved to the side, out of view.
Zeke put his hand up to keep his people from shutting down the transmission.
The camera showed a well-appointed office that could have been in a thousand places. In front of the desk was a brawny young man Zeke had never seen before. However, the black scarf in his hands was the same one from Zeke’s vision. The man had wrapped it around a woman’s throat. Zeke’s breathing picked up. He recognized the scene and her mouth. In minutes, her tongue would protrude from her lips.
The camera’s angle showed her from the waist up. Her breasts were bare, her eyes rolling into the back of her head from lack of oxygen.
“No!” Liz shouted.
“Liz, Liz, Liz,” Carreon crooned out of camera range. “You want this to stop?”
Zeke squeezed Liz’s hand again so she wouldn’t answer. The woman made gagging noises. Her face turned a dark red, but she didn’t fight. She seemed incapable of doing so, her arms hanging limply at her sides.
Zeke whispered to Liz, “It’s a trick.”
“No, it’s real,” she breathed.
“If it was, she’d be fighting.” Zeke recalled the scratches on the man’s hands in his vision. He looked for them now.
“Carreon must have drugged her,” Liz moaned.
He came back into camera range, standing next to the man and woman. “Do you want this to stop?”
“Yes,” Liz cried.
“Good. I want you and your father at my stronghold within—”
“Not going to happen,” Zeke growled. “Neither of them is leaving here.”
“Do you agree with that, Liz?” Carreon asked.
Zeke answered before she could. “It doesn’t matter if she does or not. I’m not letting either of them go.”
“I see.” He sighed deeply, then murmured, “That’s too bad. Do it,” he said to the young man.
Liz gasped and turned away as he finished strangling the woman.
Horrible noises poured from her before it was over. Zeke knew he’d never forget them or the way she’d fallen to the floor, her limbs flopping lifelessly.
“Still want to stay with Neekoma?” Carreon asked.
Liz shuddered. Zeke pulled her against him. He kept her face to his shoulder so she couldn’t see the woman’s body.
At Liz’s silence, Carreon inhaled deeply as though trying to control his irritation. “I’m giving you and your father twelve hours to return to my stronghold. If the two of you aren’t there when the time’s up, another woman will die.” He reached for something to the side.