I headed down the nearest stairs and skirted the motel until I came to the old storage shed back in the lumpy snow. Dry stems of uncut weeds and tall brown grass bent under clumps of snow. It was an area of the property no one cared about anymore. The only sign it had been visited recently were the tracks our footsteps had made in the snow that kept refilling as more snow fell.
I pulled the key out of my jeans pocket and rubbed the lock with my thumb to clear the frost from the keyhole. The lock rattled off the chain, sliding with a clunk, clunk, clunk as I dragged it through the holes in the door.
Tugging the door open, a thin beam of light fell across the bound and curled form of Jessica Gillmansen and the ramshackle mess of odds and ends rusting away near her.
Jessie
The noise of chains startled me before the door opened, light falling across me, just bright enough bouncing off the snow outside that it made me squint. My cheek was as cold as the dead ground beneath it; my ear ached. My nose had begun to run and sting not minutes after the two of them first locked me away, and now the inside of it felt thick and sharp with ice crystals. I tried to relax, to make myself appear asleep in hopes that Marlaena or Gabriel would mistake me for being less of a threat than I was.
Or at least less of a threat than I hoped I was …
I kept my wrists together behind my back, pressing them so tight the bones ached and my skin—raw from the tape I’d sliced through against the dull blade of the old lawn mower—stuck together. I opened my eyes just enough to peer out the scant space between my negligible eyelashes. The silhouette cleared in my vision.
Marlaena.
The bitch was back.
My fingers itched in the cold, itched to wrap around her neck so that I could warm my hands throttling her. But I stayed still, my fingers tightening on the screwdriver and trowel as I waited for her to come closer. I had no idea what I’d do when she finally was next to me. I only knew I had to do something.
Something desperate.
CHAPTER FOUR
Marlaena
I shuffled toward her, my eyes focused on her face to see if she was awake. Her eyes crinkled briefly—the movement of someone trying to fake sleep.
I did the same thing when I lived with Phil and Margie so I could hear the prayers they said over me late at night when they thought I was fast asleep. They had to be more embarrassed by me than I’d ever expected, knowing what they said and the frequency with which they said it.
They must’ve thought I was the Devil incarnate.
Seeing me with Jessica taped and gagged in a rusty shed would only confirm their suspicion.
I blew out a breath, and her eyes twitched again.
Jessica Gillmansen was definitely faking.
Fine. It’d make it easier to explain things to her and set her loose. Wouldn’t Phil and Margie be surprised?
And wouldn’t Gareth be proud? If I ever told him. I took a step closer to the prone girl. I could never tell him. Better just hurry up. Get her out of here and apologize …
“Jessica,” I said, nudging her with the toe of my boot. “Jessica.”
She groaned and opened her eyes slowly to glare at me.
“It’s over,” I stated, leaning across her body and stretching my hand out toward the knot that tangled in her hair and filled her mouth with foul fabric.
Jessie
“It’s over,” she said, reaching out to grab my throat. Before I could say a thing, someone behind her delivered the line instead.
“It sure as hell is!” Gareth’s shout made her jump and I took my chance, lunging at her, my hands free and holding the screwdriver and trowel I’d found among the junk in the shed. I swiped at her face, and she leaped back with a shout as the trowel bit into her cheek and left a ragged cut from her eye to her jawline.
“You bitch!” she shouted, lunging at me, hands going for my makeshift weapons.
But I stabbed and sliced at her, keeping her back. “Takes one to know one,” I snapped, my eyes widening when I saw hers narrow in response to my taunt. Someday, Jess, I warned, someday you’ll learn when to keep your mouth shut.
Her hand went to her face and came away slick with blood.
“Not so pretty now, huh?” I shouted. Dear God. Maybe I’d learn that lesson eventually, but it sure wasn’t sticking today.
“’laena!” Gareth shouted from behind her. “What—what is the meaning of this? Why the hell do you have Jessie—”
“Stop!” she commanded me. The hand not holding the wound on her face was up, palm out. “Just stop!”
For a moment I hesitated, seeing something new, something different in her eyes.
Repentance?
“Gareth—it’s not what it looks like…,” she whispered, far from the alpha role she normally played.
She was … apologetic?
But then Gabriel slipped up beside her, their combined bulk pushing me farther back into the shed, my feet tangling in the discarded junk.
“Gabe—get out of here,” Marlaena demanded, her tone terse. “Let me fix this,” she said, her attention split between me and the two guys. “It’s over.…”
In the thin space between their shoulders I saw Gareth move forward, reaching for Gabriel—to move him out of the way. And then—a shadow crossed behind Gareth and, as I focused on what was going on behind him, Gabe got past Marlaena, his hands clenching my wrists, shaking the trowel and screwdriver out of my hands with a growl.
I looked pointedly at his bandaged hand and sneered despite the pain in my wrists, saying, “Not eligible for the five-finger discount anymore, are you?”
With a snarl he raised his fist and brought it down sharply.
Marlaena
“Dammit, no!”
Gabe cuffed Jessica and she fell, limp, to the ground, causing him to smirk.
I turned back to Gareth, my hand still on my cheek, trying to find the words, to explain I was going to free the little wretch—to apologize.…
But Dmitri was behind him, as smooth and fast as a shadow, and raising a gun, he brought its butt down sharply on Gareth’s head. Gareth blinked once at me, his mouth falling open as his knees gave way and he sank to the ground a heartbeat before I could even shout a warning.
“Damn it!”
Gabe turned to Dmitri and grinned at us both.
But all I could think was that Gareth would wake up remembering two things: that I’d kidnapped Jessica Gillmansen, and I’d let someone get the drop on him.