The phone! He found the phone.
“You should have been searched. You would have been killed on the spot if it was found on you.”
I owe him no explanation.
“I wouldn’t trust me, either.” He waits a few beats. “If you had somebody tracking your whereabouts, they will no longer be able to. The phone has been disposed of.”
The tracking might not have worked in the air or from a greater distance anyway. I have no clue about these things, but it was a lifeline that has been severed, and it hurts.
“The scarred man, Kane… if he knew you had that phone, you wouldn’t have lasted another second in his presence. He didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger killing the girl, and he won’t hesitate to hurt you. Remember that. I saw what you did when I entered the office, and I also saw when Kane got curious about what was taking me so long to bring you to the plane.”
This man standing before me didn’t shoot her? He knew about the phone then and didn’t turn over this information. Why? Because he needs to bring me in or his life is on the line too.
“Kane would have disposed of you. Don’t give anybody a reason to kill you.” He holds my face still so I hear him and understand him.
“Don’t give me a reason.”
I tug my chin out of his hand and turn away from him, dismissing him, and try to keep my body from trembling. I’ve lost the only connection to Miss Catherine, and I need to grieve the loss of my family.
The loss of my life, as I no longer have one.
My fate feels set in stone.
“Go back to sleep. You are going to need all your strength to survive what is coming your way.”
I close my eyes and beg for sleep to take me under.
MATHIAS
I sit in the corner of his bedroom on his private jet, watching the girl float in and out of consciousness. I would have to remove all evidence she had bled and sweated all over his expensive sheets.
I am breaking a rule, but she needs to be alive or I’ll be dead.
There was no other place to put her in the condition she was handed to me in. I also needed to keep her away from Kane, and this was the safest place where I could watch her, a door separating her from his insanity.
I’ve been looking at this mess of a girl and trying to figure out what is so special about her. In the condition she is in, it’s very hard to tell what has drawn him to her. All I know is he wants her pretty bad, and he made sure it happened.
Those two clowns thought they were getting paid ten grand for how they delivered her to me. I don’t think so. Better somebody else’s head to roll than mine.
I contacted Nicu to announce I had her ready to board the jet. The man himself came on the line and spoke to me when the news was passed on. I’ve not been told his name yet. I haven’t made it that far, yet he came on the line to speak with me. This girl is that important to him. He asked her condition. I told him the truth. He went quiet after hearing the girl had been shot, her face a damn mess.
I felt his silent rage through my phone.
His only words before he disconnected: “Kill them.”
It was my pleasure to remove two more pieces of scum from this earth.
When we land, she will be going straight into the care of a surgeon, boss’s orders. As long as she stays alive, I’ve got nothing to worry about.
I’ve worked too hard to have the rug swept out from underneath me.
And the other girl? The one who had taken off inside the hangar? She didn’t even give me a chance to save her. Kane had radioed me and taken things into his own hands. He opened fire through the cockpit window, shooting her dead.
Nobody runs and lives.
You run, you die.
I lean my elbows on the small table I’m seated at, bowing my head and tearing at my hair.
They always fucking die.
EDGE
I wake up laid out in a hospital bed with a woman hovering over me, who gives me a warm smile. I run my eyes over her, taking in her slender fit body and blonde hair. She looks in her mid-forties and is very easy on the eyes. I know I’ve been in and out of consciousness, because I’ve seen her like this, watching me before.
“Hello, Dallas, I’m Dr. Evelyn Castille. You are now in New Orleans and under my care.”
What the hell?
“Dallas, how are you feeling?”
“Call me Edge, Doc. I don’t go by Dallas.”
She nods at me.
I take a moment to think back and get my bearings.
Sara is Whisper. And then it all comes back to me.
Motherfucker.
The doctor is still talking to me, but I ignore her and look around the room for the old lady from last night.
Was it last night?
The door swings open and she walks in. She sees I’m awake and a look of hope reaches her eyes.
What has happened since I’ve been out?
“How long have I been out?” I snap at her, still ignoring the doctor, who waits silently close by. The old lady looks terrible like she hasn’t slept a wink in days.
I can’t have been here for days.
My question goes unanswered, which just pokes my bear even more. I try a softer approach, which comes out in a more restrained, predatory growl. “Ladies, I need to know the God… damn… day… and… time.”
The doc looks at her watch calmly. “It’s after ten in the morning…”
Fuck! I was out too long.
“…on Wednesday,” she adds quietly.
I let this sink in. It’s been nearly five days since Whisper was abducted, and I’ve been here? I move into a sitting position, which is harder than first anticipated, tearing the IV out of my vein and pressing down on the needle hole with my bare thumb.
The doc shakes her head on a heavy sigh and nudges my thumb out the way, swiftly replacing it with a gauze pad from her medical supplies she has laid out on a tray close by, and tapes it down. She doesn’t seem at all surprised by what I just did.
The pain will come soon, now that I’m off that cocktail that was being fed into me. I need to be able to think straight, and I can’t do that with drugs in my system.
Whisper needs me.
The doctor is watching me closely for my next move because she knows I have one.
“Doc, can you get that damn thing out of my dick.” It’s not a question.
She gives into a heavy sigh and goes about her business until she has it removed and everything is tidied up.
“Let’s talk about your injuries before we go any further. You got hit pretty hard by something sharp and jagged, and you were shot in the foot.”
Tell me something I don’t know.
My hand instinctively feels around the back of my head and touches a thick bandage. No biggie, I’ve had worse.
“My guess is a rock was used and you suffered a concussion. I’ve cleaned your head wound and stitched it up. Your foot has been operated on, and there are pins in it now. You were very lucky where the bullet entered your foot and exited. It could have done a lot more damage than it did.”
Has anybody gone after Whisper?
My silence has the doc barking up the wrong tree. “If you are worried about being kept under the law’s radar, you aren’t my first patient, and nor will you be my last I’ve looked after. In case you are wondering, nobody knows you are here.”
Why does she assume I want to stay under the law’s radar?
I know I’ve been looked after, but I need questions answered pronto. I need a phone, and I need to know if Whisper is still being tracked.
I look over at the old lady. “Do you still have a beat on Whisper’s whereabouts?”