Pack of Lies, page 18
Jessica watched me, probably noting my bloodshot eyes and the dark circles under them. What she couldn’t see were the other effects, the aches and pains plaguing me, the loss of my senses. And she was too young to see the risk when I told her people had died during the course of these experiments.
“You should have a few bites of the food,” Willa said, handing me a piece of bread.
I took it grudgingly, staring at it as memories flooded back to me.
Ice sat beside me with a sigh, handing me a stale old bun. “This is all they’re giving us today. You’d think they would want to keep the merchandise healthy.”
I hid my face, staring down at my lap, but his words brought a smile to my lips. Recently I’d been smiling more. The closer Ice got to getting us out of here, the better I felt.
Only a few more days, he said.
Optimism flooded me. Maybe it shouldn’t, but I didn’t want to think about what would happen if we couldn’t escape. I’d lingered too long on that.
They hadn’t given me an injection, and my parents had been too busy to take me for it in the first few months after I revealed.
If I stayed here much longer, I would go gold pack, and then…
I dug my nails into the crunchy bread, plucking out a small piece and bringing it to my mouth.
I wasn’t going to go gold pack. He would get us out and I’d run right to the nearest hospital where I could get an injection. Once I got it, I was safe.
“That’s the one.”
Our captor’s voice had my gaze drawing up, eyes wide. He was pointing at me.
“Don’t take her!” Ice stood up but I stayed on the ground, silent and small as if that could prevent them from touching me. Seeing me.
Ice was shoved aside easily.
Hands grabbed my arms, hauling me up.
My instincts revved into full gear and I thrashed, trying to pull myself free. There were too many of them. Only one of me, and I was small.
Ice kept fighting to get to me, and that’s how I knew it was bad. There wasn’t going to be an escape, because I’d already been sold.
“No!” he shouted.
Every attempt to reach for each other was thwarted.
As I was moved off down the hall, I caught one final glimpse of him, breaking my long-standing silence as his white-blonde hair disappeared behind the closing door.
“ICE!”
The door to our room swung open, dragging me from the memory with a shudder. I’d never been able to give much thought to what had happened to my would-be saviour, but I hoped he’d gotten himself out.
One of the traffickers who’d been holding us had taken a liking to him, and he didn’t deserve to be treated that way forever.
“See, the new gold pack one is pretty, isn’t she?”
Our watcher from the van was standing in the doorway, crossing his arms over his chest. There was a self-impressed smirk on his face, another man hovering right behind him.
I thought he was talking about me until I noticed where his gaze was focused. Jessica was hiding behind Willa, but he wasn’t deterred.
“Little young, don’t you think?” his companion asked.
He shrugged. “She’s old enough to be an omega. That’s old enough for me.”
Jessica flinched.
Willa and I were tense, but not brave or stupid enough to move. The men might only be talking. They shouldn’t touch the women they were going to sell.
Both men stepped into the room, the door slamming shut behind them. Keys jingled as they locked the door. My heart pounded and I began to sweat, my headache growing more intense with my utter panic. The bread became a clump in my fist.
When the watcher got across the room to where the other women were huddled, he kicked Willa in the thigh. “Move.”
She shook her head.
His hand fisted her hair and dragged her up by it. Her expression twisted with pain, her teeth biting into her lip to stifle the sounds of it.
He shoved her in the direction of his companion, and she slammed into his chest. The companion smoothed her hair down with one of his hands, chuckling. “This one is still pretty, and a bit older. More my type.”
“Have her, then,” the watcher said. “She’s not gold pack, though. We get caught, you’ll get charged for harming her.”
Willa tried to scramble back from the man, but he caught her forearms. His thick fingers left marks when he readjusted his grip to pull her close.
Mae was curled in on herself in the corner.
Jessica was hyperventilating, the watcher’s hands getting closer to her skin.
I can’t let him touch her.
Surging forward, I placed myself between the two of them. His hands touched me and I shuddered. This was close enough for me to catch his scent. He smelled like pepper and nuts, the aroma tickling my nose and making me desperate to sneeze.
“The fuck are you doing?” he asked.
He tried to reach past me to Jessica, but I smacked his hand away. His bushy eyebrows drew together and his smirk morphed into a scowl.
“You’re going to be difficult? Fine. It’s you first.”
I kept my mouth shut. Part of me wanted to use my status of ‘property of the Centre’ as a shield, but I got the sense he didn’t care much about that. He pulled me to my feet and I stumbled over Jessica’s legs when he pressed me back against the wall. The man was so much taller than me but bent down so he was breathing into my mouth.
“I hear they’re trying to find out what happens when you have a child, if you’re even fertile after they fucked you up. Let’s get a head start on their experiments. Why not?”
His hands grabbed my hips and I stayed frozen, even as he tried to work my pants down over my hips.
It was better if he didn’t see my fear. These guys got off on fear.
My eyes closed and I desperately tried to calm myself.
Deep breaths.
What had Ice told me to do? It’s going to be alright, just don’t say a thing. Ice knew. I was repaying the favour he’d done for me, now. He’d kept me safe from our captors and I had to do everything I could to shelter Jessica.
Even if she ended up fucked up anyway.
Especially if she did. She had to know there was someone in this screwed up world who cared enough to sacrifice themselves for her. I’d clung to Ice through my years of experimentation, knowing he was a good person who had protected me when no one else had.
The watcher’s fingers grabbed my chin and yanked it up, straining something in my neck. The flash of pain made me hiss and snap open my eyes. He smirked. “That’s it. I wanna see those gold eyes.”
His other hand grabbed the hem of my shirt, pulling it up. My sweatpants were pooled at my feet and I couldn’t keep myself still anymore, whether he got off on fear or not.
Shoving him with both hands, I tried to move so he wasn’t pinning me to the wall. He caught me before I could escape, and I locked gazes with Willa. She was in a similar situation, her shirt on the floor and her blue eyes panicked. Neither of us were getting out of this, and maybe it was better if we stopped fighting.
She wasn’t going to.
I didn’t think I could either, not after so many years suffering in silence.
The watcher slammed me back against the wall, my vision going spotty and bile rising in my throat. My headache blossomed into a pounding migraine, my limbs heavier than they’d been seconds before. I tried to kick him, my coordination impaired. My foot missed, unbalancing me so I fell against him. His hands went for my shirt again. He was pressed so tightly to me that fighting was futile, but I tried.
I thrashed and punched and even screamed, breaking the cardinal rule that had been pounded into my head since childhood.
He’d gotten my shirt up to my armpits when the door slammed open.
A man in black stood there, his face obscured by a mask.
His eyes scanned the room, then met mine.
My breath hitched.
Reese.
His aura exploded, his pupils expanding until you almost couldn’t see the ring of dark brown around the black.
No one reacted fast enough to stop him, and I wasn’t sure if they could have. I’d never felt an aura this oppressive before. He was larger-than-life, his scent of wheat and hazelnuts drowning me with its intensity. Reese grabbed the man holding Willa and dragged him off her, the small woman maneuvering out of his grip when he was distracted. The gun was pointed in his face and fired, blood and gore splattering everything including my mate.
Then, he turned to the watcher and I.
The watcher had a second longer to react than his partner, his hand fumbling for a weapon in his belt. His aura was weak compared to Reese’s, though. Insignificant.
When Reese dragged him off me I let my shirt drop and pulled the pants back up my legs, scrambling over to Jessica. She was looking at the dead body in shock, her expression vacant. I settled myself in front of her, unable to trust Reese was safe in this state.
He was feral.
His fist smashed into the watcher’s face, causing blood to pour from his broken nose. He shoved him to the ground, stomping on the man’s genitals as he let out an ungodly scream.
My gaze slid to the door. Willa was ushering Mae out. They’d been closer. Jessica and I would have to go around Reese, and I wasn’t sure if Jessica was up to the task.
Reese didn’t stop there.
He followed the watcher to the floor, whaling on him with his gloved fists. I heard sickening crunches as bones broke. His target was never able to fight back, coughing up blood in between screams before going silent. There were no more breaths filling his lungs, but Reese didn’t stop.
Sweat streamed down my mate’s forehead, most being sopped up by the fabric mask but some dripping into his eyes.
His aura didn’t calm, not even once my attacker was clearly dead.
He had to be a rogue.
Nothing else explained this sheer fury, and how he was incapable of breaking himself out of it.
Rogues were erratic and dangerous, their auras unsafe for society, but I’d never seen why before. This was why. Reese didn’t have any idea what he was doing. All there was in the depths of his eyes was rage.
Getting to my feet, I dragged Jessica up. Standing made me groan in pain, and I barely leaned over before I was vomiting. None of our movements attracted Reese’s attention. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I ushered her around the carnage to the door.
We had to step over the dead body to do it, Jessica’s high heel squelching in the pool of blood.
At the wide open door, Jessica continued but I paused.
How long would Reese stay like this?
His muscles had to be straining by now, the watcher’s face beaten to a pulp, his body broken in multiple places. He hadn’t let up. Jessica tried to pull me down the hall, but I shook my head. “Go. You remember where we came in, run to leave,” I said.
“What about you?” she asked, glancing back into the room.
Her nails dug into my skin, not letting go of my hand. I’d expected her to take the out without question.
“He’s my mate. I can’t leave him here.”
I swallowed, prying her fingers off me.
“Do you feel his aura? He’s a rogue; he could hurt you.”
He could. Fear of that made my limbs heavy, combined with the bone-tiredness and my pounding skull. I still didn’t know for sure if he was my scent match. I’d been confident the answer was yes, but I’d been confident of plenty of things before learning they had an omega at home that they’d been hiding from me.
But I couldn’t just leave him here.
More men would be coming, and they would kill him.
My heart clenched.
“He won’t,” I said, exuding confidence I didn’t feel.
Jessica didn’t believe me, but she turned to head down the hallway. Her heels clicked, giving away her location, and she was smart enough to slip them off her feet before vanishing around the corner.
I stepped back into the room, trying to tread loudly enough Reese could hear me coming. He wasn’t paying attention. By the time I was beside him, he hadn’t looked up.
Reaching out, I placed a hand on his shoulder.
His aura pulsed, his head whipping around to look at me. There wasn’t any recognition in his eyes and I gasped, stumbling back. I tripped on my own feet, landing hard on my tailbone, and he was hovering over me a second later. My vision was spotty from the pain of quick movement combined with my migraine, and I couldn’t tell how he was looking at me.
Did he recognize me? Or was I going to become the next target of his uncontrollable rage?
TWENTY-FOUR
THORN
Reese sucked in a deep breath and moved closer to me. I fought the urge to scramble back or close my eyes.
I’d decided I wanted him to live, and I would stand by that. He needed to shake himself out of this haze, and I didn’t know enough about rogues to know how that was possible.
Reaching up with clumsy hands, I clutched his biceps. The shirt he wore was damp, but I rubbed the fabric across his skin. My hope was that it would soothe him and remind him of who I was, whether I was his scent match or not. He had seemed to care about me. Would my scent pierce through the veil of his chaotic aura?
His fingers grazed my side, trailing up my body gently. The touch was almost light enough to be ticklish. When they reached my hair, he tousled the strands.
My body calmed when the touch didn’t turn violent.
Reese kept touching my hair, wafting my scent over to him. His body relaxed one muscle at a time until he slumped.
His forehead hit my shoulder and he released a sound I could only describe as a whimper.
“Fuck, precious, I never want to smell your fear again,” Reese said, his voice choked.
Wet drops landed on my shirt, soaking the fabric. Was it sweat or tears? I couldn’t puzzle it out, not before Reese bundled me up in his arms. He was covered in blood, but I pressed to his chest, anyway. With this migraine, I’d stumble my way through walking out of the building. He could carry me if he wanted to.
No matter how mad I was about the revelation about Marlowe, he’d come for me and saved my life.
“You got her?” Denzel’s voice came from around the corner before Reese had left the tiny room. “Holy fuck. Reese?”
I stiffened, uncomfortable in his presence, and avoided looking away from Reese’s chest. Yet, I was relieved to know he was unharmed too.
“I’m good,” Reese said.
“You should give her to me,” Denzel said, sounding unsure of Reese’s mental stability.
I clutched Reese tighter, soothed by his growl. “No. Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Reese muttered.
Denzel didn’t try to argue further.
We rushed down the hallway and into the main open space, where shouts bounced from wall to wall. They had a team here, like the one they’d used at the Centre. There was no way they’d broken into this place without help. Hopefully the shouting was their team and not the traffickers catching up to us.
I didn’t look.
Not until we’d banged through the door and into the fresh air. Two masked men were standing outside the door and Denzel stopped to talk to them. Reese continued on, making for a black van. I peered around the dimly lit back alley.
“Where are the omegas who were with me?” I asked.
He wouldn’t know. He’d been in the room as long as I had.
“They should be in the van.”
We made it there a moment later, the back doors sitting open. Willa and Mae huddled in the depths.
Panic sliced through me.
“Where’s Jessica?” I asked frantically.
Reese set me down in the van.
“She never came out here,” Willa said, her eyes going wide.
I hopped down to the ground, my feet unsteady. Where had she gone? This was the way out. I’d told her Reese was my mate, she would have known she didn’t have to avoid these men. They were our saviours.
“Thorn—”
Shoving Reese when he tried to block my path, I stumbled back toward the door. Vertigo made my vision double, those black spots still dancing. I grit my teeth, desperate to walk in a straight line. We need to get Jessica.
Denzel came stalking toward me, his mouth open to bark an order. Reese caught me around the waist when I stumbled. “Don’t talk to me,” I snapped before Denzel could speak. “Jessica is still in there.”
“We have to leave.”
“She’s sixteen. She’s gold pack. I’m not leaving without her, I know what they’ll do if she stays here. She should have been on her way out.”
I’d nearly experienced firsthand what they would do. I could still feel the watcher’s breath brushing against my mouth, his sweat sticky on my hands from when I’d fought back.
Tearing myself out of Reese’s loose grip, Denzel caught me when I fell next.
I couldn’t even walk in this state. How was I supposed to save her?
I grit my teeth against the pain and began forward again, only to be held back by Denzel. Catching him in the stomach with my elbow, his irritated grunt was satisfying, though not as pained as I would have liked.
“We’ll tell the guys to find her. Get in the van, Thorn.”
“No. I get in that van, you’ll leave.”
He growled. Men streamed out of the warehouse, masked with weapons in hand. Gunfire followed them, and Denzel shoved me behind him with a curse. “Reese, take her to the fucking van.”
I tried to fight the big alpha’s grip on me, but I was too weak. My body was failing me, every movement slower than the last. The pounding of my head was reaching a crescendo, each pop of a gun making it pulse. I hardly realized when I’d been placed gently in the back of the van beside Willa.
The van lurched and I leaned over to puke, my stomach so empty only bile came up. Willa’s gentle hands held my hair, stroking my back.
Jessica was still in the warehouse as we pulled away, leaving the intense violence behind.
