"I wouldn't have. Abbot told me to play along, that he would be here tonight. I didn't think I would be in a room full of people though. That threw me for a fucking loop," Luke said.
"I wish you would have told me."
"I know. I'm sorry. I had to do this. Jesse wanted to kill her and almost did several times. If I wouldn't have been here..."
I turned my head and looked over at my brother. Seriousness covered his face.
"Jesse is a fucking sociopath. A lunatic and egotistical maniac. We aren't safe. She won't stop until we are all dead or until she has you."
I swallowed and saw actual fear in his eyes.
"Neither of those things will ever fucking happen."
Thirty-six
Strong hands held my body tight. Slightly tilting my head to view my capturer, I saw a face that I had learned to disregard. My hate lingered. Luke said he tried to save my life, but after everything, could he really be trusted? What part did he play? He wasn't the ringleader, but rather a caged tiger. With everything I had, I slammed my slack hands at his chest. Weak from the drugs, my world shook.
"Shh. It’s going to be okay," Luke said.
We traveled forward but weren’t alone. Several footsteps shuffled as we walked, but I couldn’t see who surrounded us. The show must be over. Did Luke have sex with me? I wanted to remember. I needed to remember what happened, but the memory didn't exist. Each time they incapacitated me, they took away a little piece of my life. Life. Jesse would end mine without thinking twice.
I panicked.
Could Luke really save me from her and the men that seemed to do whatever she said? I let out a whimper as fear consumed me.
"Jennifer?" A voice, one that I never thought I'd hear again, spoke.
I couldn’t see Finnley because of the way Luke held me in his arms, but I tried. I struggled. I needed to see him. I needed to know he was real and not a figment of the drugs that mingled with my blood.
"You’re safe now. I’m here."
I stared at him. Water streamed down my face, and I realized I was crying, crying because he had come for me. He wiped away the tears that continued to fall.
"Are you real?" I whispered, not sure if I spoke or just imagined it.
Finnley laughed. Then his face distorted and he winced. "As real as I'll ever be, Miss Downs."
A man with blond shaggy hair grabbed Finnley's shoulder and spoke into his ear. "We have to get the fuck out of here. Now. You need a doctor."
I tried to focus on Finn, the man who visited, and sometimes haunted, my dreams. He pushed out a smile and tucked a few loose strands of hair behind my ear. "I’m never letting you out of my reach again." His words echoed and everything dulled. Good, I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs, but no words formed.
My eyelids were like glue and once they closed, I couldn’t open them. I dove back into an unconscious pool of my fears. I screamed to be released, to wake up, to be back in the dank hall looking into Finnley’s eyes wondering why he needed a doctor. But instead, I was in a horrible inescapable realm.
A woman stood in front of me: my mother, bruised and broken. I focused on her face and eerie smile, as she transformed into Jesse. My blood curdled. The drugs allowed the dark thoughts to capture me and run freely. I hated it.
I felt pain shoot through my body, and I was back in the hallway. Luke didn't hold me anymore, and the cold cement felt icy on my half naked body. Finn leaned over me with fear in his eyes.
In the faint distance, a gunshot resonated and screams confirmed Finn's expression.
"Can you walk? Jennifer. Focus. Can you walk? The exit is straight ahead. Right up those stairs."
More gunshots resonated behind us and with every ounce of strength I had, I forced myself into a sitting position. Although my world shook, I knew I could do this. I didn't want to die here.
My balance wasn't right, but Finn steadied me. I wrapped my arm around his waist and felt something wet on my fingers. When I looked down, I saw dark liquid, blood. We made eye contact, and he shook his head no.
"We will worry about it when we are out of this fucking shithole." Hell hath no fury like Finnley fucking Felton on a mission, injured or not.
Cages lined the walls, and women screamed and reached out for us as we passed. I remembered being in this hallway once, and I saw the end staring me in the face. Right around the corner we would climb the stairs that led to the exit on the street.
Everything quickly became mass chaos as the blond man unlocked the temporary prison cells. Gunfire zipped through the hall. Frightened women ran past Finn and me without looking back. The traffickers would not be forgiving, and my fears consumed me. Would I ever be safe? Would Finnley? While winning the battle of saving me, they had inevitably started a war. Somehow I knew Finnley and his men didn't care.
Finnley turned around and looked behind us. Other than the women running through the hallways, we were alone. He yelled for his entourage to hurry but it was drowned out in the mass chaos that surrounded us.
We rounded the corner alone, and a snarling man blocked our way to the stairs. The exit was on the other side of him, and I knew we wouldn't get past without a fight. My legs went out from under me, and Finnley used his strength to hold me.
"Move," Finn said, demanded him, but instead, he laughed like a maniac. He wrapped his arm more snuggly around me but as the man came forward, Finn moved me behind him. I steadied myself against the wall.
Finnley delivered blow after blow, and the giant of a man was on his knees. Adrenaline fueled him. Before walking away, Finn kicked him in the stomach and the man crumbled over on the ground. Not able to stand any longer, my legs went from under me, and I fell to the floor. Too much happened at once, and I wasn't in the best of conditions. Finn bent down over me.
"Let's get out of here."
When I reached up for him, I saw a brute of a man looming over us with a knife in his hand.
"No." I tried to force out, but it was nothing more than a whisper when I saw the flash of a blade disappear and watched Finn fall to his knees. The man lifted the knife above his head, ready to strike again.
I struggled to move as Finnley searched my face. I crawled toward him and tried to scream as he doubled over.
The blond man rounded the corner. As the brute brought the knife down for another round, one single gunshot escaped from the gun in Blondie's hands.
"What a stupid motherfucker."
The man went slack on top of Finn, and Blondie kicked him onto the pavement.
"I should fucking shoot him again for good measure."
Finnley lay without any movement on the ground. Blondie lifted his shirt and screamed to the men that rounded the corner.
Blood was everywhere. I couldn't look.
Death—something so inevitable for all things living—significantly changed my outlook on life, and I didn't want to live through it again. I was tired of losing people I cared for, and a part of me desperately needed Finnley. My parents’ death, leaving Texas for Vegas, the Bellagio, The Elite, Abby, Luke, Finnley, Jesse, London, Paris, the kidnapping, all of those events led to this specific moment.
Time, the only enemy I had, the only thing that we as humans continuously worked against, seemed to control my every move. Timing could be cruel or brilliant. Timing created love or made wars. At that moment, timing left me alone in my darkness, without a clue of what the future held. I became a slave to the ticking seconds, as Finnley lay on the cold concrete, lifeless and bleeding.
Luke rushed to his brother with horror in his eyes. Muffled words, and screams left him. Shock mixed with fear and I couldn't move. Strong hands lifted me, and everything went black. The disbelief of what had happened physically overtook me at the wrong time. I needed to know that the only man I loved was alive and okay. The world dripped away to nothing as we climbed the stairs and exited onto the street.