“Giuseppe and Lucio just got out. Charges were dropped. Evidence went missing.”
My lungs constrict, all air supply ceases. Motherfuckers.
“How the fuck is that even possible? Why weren’t we informed this was happening? Fuck!”
Eli’s anger and disbelief mirrors my own, but then it doesn’t take a genius to know they’d have pulled strings and paid off every corrupt cop and judge to not only make this happen, but to keep it from me.
I turn to Roamyn,
“Lindsey.”
“Alison,” we say at the same time.
“Let’s go,” I call out, already running to my desk. I fling open the top draw, grab my gun, and head back out, snatching the keys to the squad car off the board near the coffee machine. Roamyn and Elias meet me outside and we jump in the squad car, sirens on, blasting through the streets way above the speed limit.
“Cassidy’s there. Call her,” I order while twisting down side streets, my hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles are white. We weren’t informed and every protocol seems to have been broken. I’m sure as shit convinced that Lindsey and Alison won’t have been told about their release either. My heart pounds so fucking heavy, I can hear it thudding in my ears. What if they’ve already got hold of them? My whole body shakes with fear. This was pure fear, the life-ending fear of losing everything, losing a battle one never recovers from.
In the back of my mind, I can hear Elias’s voice talking into the phone, and Roamyn yelling from the passenger seat, but I’m too far away from her loft for their words to mean anything to me. I’m stuck between changing lanes, traffic lights, and the touch of Lindsey’s soft skin under mine, the floral scent of perfume invading my space.
I don’t hear or see anything else, not really, not until I have her safely in my arms.
I pull alongside the curb of the familiar brick building and jump out. The motor hums in my ears as I yank out my gun, clicking the safety off. My feet pound the concrete as I take the steps two at a time while Roamyn and Elias follow behind me. My palms sweat, my heart pounds.
First floor, clear.
Elevator, clear.
The elevator dings. The doors open up and time slows down. Cassidy’s pain stricken face greets us with a whole new nightmare.
Her breathing is shallow and her chest heaves. Her shoulders droop and her voice tremors. “We’re too late. They’re gone.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Lindsey
It’s only been hours, but time has no concept when living in a nightmare. I’ve survived so far, just. And I’ll continue to fight every damn day until I have nothing left in me because I have so much to fight for.
I’ve felt happiness, the real kind.
I’ve witnessed loyalty.
I’ve lived the truth.
I understood love. I loved, Love.
No one would stop me from trying to get that back.
My head pounds and it’s becoming harder to ignore. The ache thumping against my skull grows louder along with other noises I couldn’t hear before, things I couldn’t feel before. The trademark sounds of the city are close, so close. The low chatter of men’s voices comes from somewhere nearby. My body bounces from a bump beneath me, and I realize I’m in a vehicle. My eyes shoot open as fear pools in the pit of my empty stomach. Where am I? Alison! Oh, God, my home. Lucio and his men, they came for us. Sweat drips from my forehead as my heart rate accelerates to an extraordinary speed. Nothing but blackness surrounds me as I breathe harder and faster. There’s something over my head, over my face. I can’t see, can’t breathe. Claustrophobia sets in, frantically clawing up my throat. I reach for the cover over my head, needing air, needing my freedom, but my arms won’t move. I yank, pull, trying to free myself from whatever is binding my wrists together, but it stings. As I yank back and forward, a scream rips from me when my skin cuts open. Warm liquid trickles down my arms, but I grit my teeth, pushing past the pain. I have to get to Alison.
Mumbling catches my attention and I hear, “We’re two minutes out.”
I yank again. I pull until I can’t anymore. I scream until my throat is hoarse. I kick out with both my legs until my feet hurt from kicking a force I cannot break through. I stop to catch my breath as my heart pounds heavily in my chest. My shoulders scream in pain from the agony I’m causing on my body, but I can’t give up. I won’t. My eyes begin to close again, unconsciousness only one or two blinks away. My head is light, so light I’m floating, yet my limbs feel heavy like they’re ready to shut down on me. But then I hear his gravelly voice, imagine his lips on my neck, his strong arms around me and I force myself to stay alert. I cough past the razor blades in my throat and groan in pain when I change positions, moving closer to where my wrists are bound. I just have to stay focused on the faces blurring in my head. Alison. Mason. Charlotte. Oliver.
I can get through this for them. For love.
It kills me inside to realize how blind I was to believe love would ever be my weakness when ultimately, it’s my power. It possesses me with a strength only love is capable of giving.
Desperation spurs me on and as I open my mouth to yell again a whimper stops me. My ears prick and I twist my head to the left in the direction of the tiny cry.
“Alison! Is that you?”
“Lindsey.” A quiet moan sounds through the truck, the van, whatever the hell it is we are being transported in and I yank again, attempting to pull free and head for Ali. No one yells, or maybe no one cares. But no one says anything about me trying to break free. Maybe they can’t see or hear us.
“Alison, oh, thank God. You’re alive.”
“Barely. My arms are going to fall off. I can’t move,” Ali croaks out.
“Ali, listen to me. Can you see anything, feel anything nearby? Are your hands tied up? I can’t move. I—”
The sound of a hatch and the wind brushing over my skin halts me in my questioning. My heart thunders in my ears as I hear a voice I recognize all too well.
“Well, well, you’re both awake. Just in time for your deaths.” The callous tone of Lucio’s voice sends cold shivers down my spine and I pull on my binds again, making them bite my skin.
A chuckle comes from him. “Oh, little Lindsey, give up now. Fighting will only make it worse.”
“I will never stop fighting,” I spit back.
“Take the hoods off and the cuffs. We don’t need them now anyway,” Lucio says to someone who makes no verbal response, but in seconds, the material over my head is ripped off. Light blinds me, fresh air suffocates me, and I immediately look around for Ali with panic ripping through me.
I catch her scared blue eyes as they lock onto mine. A shudder ripples over me when I take in the bruise blemishing her cheek with shades of red. As I scan over her and see no other part of her harmed, a small relief lifts a weight off my chest.
“Are you okay?” I ask, a slight tremble in my tone. I dread what’s to come, I just have to hope Ali has a reason to fight. She’s been through so much, how much more can she handle?
A sharp pain squeezes my arm and I’m flung around to meet the ferocious brown eyes of a lion ready to kill its prey. His thick dark eyebrows knit together, and his greasy long hair falls to his jaw. I barely register the unfamiliar man beside me holding my other arm and the black bag which was used to cover my head. He must be new. I’ve never seen him with Lucio before.
“Shut the fuck up and do as you’re told. I didn’t tell you to speak.”
I shrug him off me with as much force as I can muster. “Get your hands off me, Lucio.”
Lucio has a temper worse than any I’ve ever seen. I unleashed a ticking time bomb. I should have known better.