Safe with Me, page 25
Breath left my body in a quick exhale, and everything in my vision turned black.
Chapter Twenty
Fay
I munched on a cucumber and cream cheese sandwich, idly petting Clinton, Fia’s cat. We were cuddled on the sofa, watching a Beast teen romance on the projector. It was getting close to nine and I hadn’t heard from Havi yet, which was unusual. Ever since I’d almost burned the kitchen down, she’d made it a point to come home and make dinner for us every single night.
I tried connecting with her chrono, but the call didn’t go through. Which was odd—why would she turn it off?
As the minutes passed into an hour, my fingers started to tremble, and I quickly connected with Mal.
“Her tool belt is here,” Mal said, after I explained what happened. “Which means she packed up for the day. Let me check with Aster and Naia. Perhaps she stopped at their apartment for dinner after all.”
I chewed my thumbnail nervously as I waited for Mal to call me back.
An eon later, my chrono buzzed.
“Not there either. Could she be out with friends?” Mal offered.
I shook my head. “Even if she was, she wouldn’t disappear like this without telling me. What time do you think she left your building?”
I heard Mal tapping on something. “I’m checking the entry logs.”
More tapping. “She accessed my apartment with her code at 8:35. Left at 8:38.”
“It’s been two hours. This is not like her, Mal. I’m really worried.”
“Can you track her chrono?”
“It’s turned off.”
“Even so,” Mal insisted. “We’ll at least have her last seen location.”
“Right.”
Havi had put me in her family circle a few weeks back, when she’d returned the patrol’s chrono tracker and purchased her very first personal chrono. It allowed me to track her whereabouts, essential for situations just like this. The feature was usually necessary for parents with young children and teenagers, but it also helped to keep relationships transparent, and given the situation that Havi was in with her ongoing case, we felt like we couldn’t be too careful.
I stumbled a little to find the family circle, fingers trembling as I navigated the interface. Seeing as I’d never had reason to use this function before, it took me a few tries to locate the button that said “Track Location.”
While it toggled, I bit my thumbnail again, pulling off a string of hard flesh with a painful tug. I could barely hear anything over the pounding of my heartbeat in my ears.
When the map popped up on the screen, I could only frown.
“Mal?”
“Yeah?”
“It says her last seen location was the corner of Ashford Street. That’s just around the corner of your building, on the route back to my apartment.” I scrolled through for more details. “Last time log was 8:41 p.m. That’s only three minutes after she clocked out, right?”
“Yes, it is. There’s no other information? Faulty solar battery?”
I shook my head. “The chrono health monitor says it was working at 100 percent. It still is, but it’s been turned off. That doesn’t make sense, right? It wouldn’t have turned off automatically. Mal, I think she’s in trouble. Do you have cameras at that side of the building? Could you check, please?”
“Of course, Fay. But it’ll take some time.”
“It’s okay, I’ll wait.”
“How about I call you back in a bit, huh?”
I nodded because my throat was closing, then realized she couldn’t see me.
“Okay,” I squeaked.
“I’ll see what I can find.” And then she was gone.
I looked over at Clinton, who was now burrowed under one of the new throw pillows Havi had bought for the house. His head was tucked away in a corner and his little fat butt was sticking up in the air. Even that ridiculous sleeping position couldn’t alleviate my worried shivers.
I reached out to the only person I trusted to find a solution.
“Fay? What’s going on? What time is it?”
Skinny’s voice sounded thick with sleep.
“I...” My voice broke and I didn’t know how to continue. I sniffled, feeling my eyes well with tears, trying my best to hold them back. I struggled to keep myself together and push through sobs that threatened to overtake me any second.
The edges of my nails bit into my palm as I rocked back and forth on the sofa, trying to make my voice work.
There was a knock at the door.
“C-come in.”
And then Skinny was standing in front me, wearing nothing but his sleep shorts, gathering me into his arms.
“What’s going on, Fay?” He reached out to flick a tear off my cheek.
“Havi hasn’t come home.” I saw a flicker of fear in his eyes. “I think something bad happened to her.”
“You’ve checked with her friends? Her boss at work?”
“I called Mal and asked her to check the security footage where Havi’s chrono logged her last location. It was at 8:41 p.m. at the corner of the building where she works.”
He sat back on his haunches. “Let me see.”
“Mal’s checking on the footage now but I’m in her family circle if you wanna track her chrono yourself.”
“What’s going on?” Danny stood in the open doorway, covered in a soft white robe; a similar one hanging from his fingertips. “You tore out of bed like your butt was on fire.”
“Havi’s not home,” Skinny said, scrolling through the same paths I had, looking for clues as to where she might be.
“Here.” Danny stepped forward and draped the robe over my brother’s shoulders, lingering with loving fingers. I tried to muster a smile for him and failed.
“What can I do to help?” he asked, sitting close to me on the couch.
I shook my head with a sniffle. “Thanks, Danny, but I don’t know what to do. Should we call the patrol?”
“They’ll ask us to wait twenty-four hours,” Skinny mumbled, fingers flying over the projected screen of my chrono.
My gut clenched. “I have a bad feeling. Something’s not right.”
Danny patted my knee. “I’m going to get you some water.”
Skinny frowned from his squatted position on the floor. “This is...weird. She just disappeared from the corner of the building.”
Just then, a call came in and Skinny hit the accept button.
It was Mal, her cheeks devoid of color.
“I have the footage.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Havi
Aw hell, my back hurt like a motherfucker.
I groaned before I could stop myself, then bit my lip to hold the curses in—there were a lot of ’em running through my mind thanks to the sharp pains shooting up my back. My muscles were spasming as though I’d been electrocuted or something...perhaps I had been. I couldn’t rule that out quite yet.
My head was pounding. Not due to the light that was filtering through my lids, but because the pain in my back was making my neck tense, which sent a throb up my skull. I wanted to groan out loud, let the pain out at least a little, but I grit my teeth and held back. I didn’t know who was listening.
Goddamn, what the hell is happening?
One minute I’d been walking home on a quiet street and the next I’m on some sort of hard floor, hurting from the waist up. My jacket—which I’d been grateful for just some time ago—was now burning hot, threatening to singe my skin. It was supposed to be techwear, something that detected my body temperature and adjusted accordingly, but clearly the heat setting worked better than the cool. That’s what I got for thrifting clothes.
I felt a bead of sweat leave my hairline and touch the edge of my brow as it ran down my temple and onto the hard floor below. It was quickly followed by another drop, then another. I focused on the dripping pattern, consistent and warm as I took stock of the rest of my body.
I came close to cursing again when I realized my hands were immobilized. It felt like a typical magnetic cuff, something the patrol had used on me numerous times. I’d studied these at length during my interviews with Lilac, and only concluded they were impossible to get out of, as they were controlled by some kind of identification code on an authorized chrono.
Does that mean I’m in patrol custody again? They’d closed the “damage to public property” case weeks ago. And if this was the patrol, why would they knock me out?
There was some light shuffling not too far away followed by what sounded like the squeak of boots on a metal floor. It was a familiar sound after spending weeks sequestered on a ship with flooring just like that.
A gentle clearing of someone’s throat. A sniffle.
A large sigh.
“Havi?”
Too surprised at the mention of my name, my eyes popped open. The first thing I saw as my vision focused was a metallic silver wall—my nose was about an inch away from it. I was curled on my side, hands cuffed together in front of me.
“You all right?”
That voice was familiar.
“Is it safe to get up?” My voice was nothing but a rasp.
“Yeah, he’s not here.”
With my bound hands and throbbing back, I struggled into a seated position, propping myself against the wall for support.
I took in the small room that was nothing but four metallic walls, perhaps a ten-by-ten space. There were shadowy figures slumped on the floor like I’d been, but only one sat upright.
“Woods?” I asked, blinking in the low light.
I couldn’t remember her first name for the life of me. She was a young A5 pilot in her second year of training. I remembered her panicked voice over the ship’s comm system that fateful day, asking for instructions on how to pilot a commercial ship.
Now, however, she was in a simple strappy sundress-type thing, sitting cross-legged in the corner opposite me, near the doorway. Her long blonde hair, which had always been in a tight bun on the army base, was now flowing down her shoulders. She looked...good. Despite the situation. And very pregnant.
Our gazes locked.
“Jeffries.” I said his name like a hiss.
She nodded, placing a hand on her stomach as though she were trying to protect her child from the mere mention of Jeffries’ name.
“Three pilots managed to disappear, but he got the rest of us who landed on Star Two. Think I was spared the immobilizer ’cause of the baby, otherwise I’d be out like the rest of them.”
My gaze dropped to her belly, which she was still kneading as though she was gaining some comfort from it.
“Feels weird to say congratulations right now.”
Her smile was strained. “I’ll take it anyway.”
“Goddamn, this isn’t legal!”
“Shhh!” She peered out the open doorway. “They’re not too far away.”
“They?”
“Those guys helping Jeffries. They’re mean-looking fuckers, I can tell you that for sure.”
“I don’t understand.” I shook my head. “Were you formally notified by the Cluster Council that you were going to be taken back to Earth? I assume that’s where we’re going?”
“I don’t think any of this is ‘official’ in any way.”
“Shit,” I cursed, my stomach churning with a mix of fear and anger. “I’m not even involved in the case any longer. I’m a citizen now, which means I can’t be deported.”
Her dark eyes widened. “How did you manage that?”
“I got married.” God, I hated that my marriage to Fay sounded like a means to an end, but now wasn’t the time to process those complicated feelings.
“Well, congratulations to you, too.”
“Does he really think he can get away with kidnapping us?” I hissed, trying to get a glimpse of the “mean-looking fuckers” that were standing just outside.
“I think he already did,” Woods murmured with a wobble in her voice.
I cursed. “How long have I been out?”
“I... I’ve lost track of time. They took away all our chronos and trackable devices. But you were already lying on the floor when we were brought here.”
I glanced down at my wrist. True enough, my personal chrono was gone.
I shifted my left shoulder, feeling for my work chrono. If I was lucky enough, they wouldn’t have thought to look under my skintight jacket.
“Woods? Can you keep a lookout?”
She peeked out the doorway and nodded. “Sure, what’s the plan?”
I undid the top of my jacket and raised my bound hands to my shoulder, making sure to reduce the volume on the chrono all the way down to mute. Then I whispered, Connect with Mal.
I waited an appropriate amount of time before I hit “1” on the volume.
“Havi? Havi? You’re alive!”
“Mal, I’m going to need you to listen to me, all right? I need you to track my location and contact P.D. Lilac at patrol headquarters.”
I heard a crackling as she moved. “What’s going on? Why are you whispering?”
“I don’t have much time. You need to tell Lilac that Captain Jeffries has taken me and eight others against our will. I think we’re headed back to Earth.”
“What the fuck?”
I heard the resounding panic in Mal’s voice and the ruckus in the background as she scrambled to do as I said.
“Have you locked my location?” I whispered, wincing against the nervous knot in my stomach.
“Errr...yeah. You’re somewhere near Star Two,” Mal reported. “Gods, Havi, Fay has been running ragged looking for you!”
I took a large, shuddering breath, trying to silence the cocktail of guilt and fear and anger that rose in my chest at the thought of my wife going through an emotional whirlwind because of me.
“They immobilized me,” I explained, my tongue numb. “I passed out.”
“I saw the footage of what happened. They got you good.”
“Mal, keep the tracker locked on me, okay? In case we start moving.”
“Shit. Er, yes, okay. I’m sending your coordinates over to patrol headquarters. Do you want me to tell Fay? She’s worried sick. We’ve been calling back and forth for the past hour or so.”
Oh god. My wife didn’t deserve this.
“Yes, put me through to Fay, please.”
“Hang on.”
I looked over at Woods, who still had one eye out the door. She gave me a thumbs-up.
“H-Havi?” A ball lodged in my throat at that trembling voice, so filled with fear that guilt ripped through me like a thundercloud.
“I’m here, angel.”
“Are you okay? Mal sent us the security footage of you being thrown in a black hovercraft... D-did they hurt you?”
“Nothin’ I can’t stand. I’ve already asked Mal to contact Lilac. There are others here with me... I’m not sure how bad they’re hurt.”
“Shit...” Her voice was high. Panicked.
“I have no intention of going down easy. Jeffries is not taking me back to Earth if I can help it.”
“It’s kidnapping, what he’s doing!” Fay yelled, her voice high and squeaky.
“I know.” I wondered how her panic was calming the riot in my own chest.
“I’m going down to patrol headquarters. I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
I couldn’t stop her. I knew I couldn’t.
“Can I talk you into staying home? It’s not safe...”
“No way.” I imagined her shaking her head stubbornly. “I need to do something, otherwise I’d go crazy.”
“Hello?” Skinny’s voice interjected our conversation. “Fay? What’s—”
At that moment, Woods’ thumb turned downward, indicating it wasn’t safe to keep talking. I muted the chrono and zipped up, laying my head back against the wall as though I was still drowsy.
“Captain.” I heard Woods’ voice. “Why are you doing this? We were happy on our Star. I was starting a new life.”
“Actions have consequences, Woods. You can’t expect to steal from the United States government and get away with it.”
“But the Cluster Agreement...”
“Fuck that stupid piece of shit agreement!” A loud bang accompanied his words, and I didn’t have to open my eyes to know he’d hit the metal wall with his fist. “You think it’s so easy to leave obligations behind and ‘start a new life’?”
His last words were dangerously mocking.
Woods’ voice was shaky when it reached my ears. “Why do you begrudge us that, Captain? It takes nothing away from you.”
“Nothing?” he scoffed. “Twelve pilots under my command deserted the army and you think it takes nothing away from me? Do you know how much trouble I’m in because of all of you?”
“Y-you can just say you couldn’t locate us. We won’t tell anyone. I swear.”
“But I did find you, Woods. And I’m taking you back for a fair trial.”
The gross pleasure in his voice made my skin crawl.
There was a brief pause. I held my breath as I heard a light shuffle, then the sharp tap of boots on the metal floor.
“I know you’re awake, Havi.”
That voice was close. Too close. I felt my lip curl.
“No use pretending, big girl.”
I opened my eyes, staring into the glazed top of my former captain’s forehead. Even in the dimmest light, it shone like a beacon.
I acted on instinct, slamming my head into his nose, hearing the crunch reverberate through the room. He gasped in pain and I brought my cuffed hands down on his bare head, repeating the motion until he fell over headfirst, smacking on the floor.
There was blood on me. Little drops clinging to my face.
I wanted to wipe them away, but I knew I’d only succeed in smearing it all over if I tried.
