Hunted (A Sinners Series Book 2) (29 page)

“This mission just got a whole lot harder,” Bruno says. “They all know what Lexi looks like. How are we going to hide her? It was bad enough that people outside the Hole were fed wanted posters and notices every hour. Now, people inside the Hole will be hunting her too.”

“You’re not hiding me anywhere. There’s no way I’m staying down here while you guys are up there. Plus, it’s not just me; they know all of us, except Roméo. And I doubt they know Bill’s with us.”

“Have you got anything good to tell us?” Bruno asks. “You’re like the harbingers of death.”

“Sorry, man, not a damn thing,” Cole says.

“I’m going to grab some things; mind if I take Zeus with me?” Bill cuts in. I twist my head in his direction, confused.

“For what?” I ask.

“Company.”

“If he’ll go with you, sure,” Cole says. “Just make sure he gets water and something to eat, please.”

Zeus follows Bill down the dark hallway, and I turn around toward the others. Roméo leaves the room. Cole hands me a protein bar and water, but he says nothing. Whatever hovers between us isn’t going away.

“Why don’t you boys go get some sleep? Lexi and I can handle this,” Grace says.

“No, you two rest first,” Cole says.

“I can’t … too much on my mind,” I say. “Really, please go sleep.” Selfishly, I’m looking forward to some time alone with Grace.

“Okay. But only for a few hours.”

“All right.”

“Promise you’ll come and get me if you need anything,” he says to me.

“Of course.”

Grace and Bruno hug and say they love each other, while Cole and I stand in awkward silence.

After they leave, Grace puts down two tan towels right next to each other, a good three feet away from Amber. She sits down and pats the other one for me to join her. I plop down, untie my boots, and place them behind me. The smell of soggy socks and wrinkled feet fills the air. I snort, but Grace says nothing about the aroma. For a few minutes, we sit in silence as I rub my throbbing feet and stretch my cramping muscles. Grace leaves for a few minutes before coming back with more water. She snacks on some nuts. It’s deathly quiet except for her munching.

“This room’s so uplifting, don’t you think?” Grace asks, her attempt at humor.

“More like depressing.” We both laugh.

The only light is from the propane lamp Bill somehow managed to find. It lets off an eerie glow, making Amber’s hair almost bronze. My mind runs away with me. I wonder how much time we have left down here. How much time we have left at all. And then I think of Sutton. We are all on borrowed time.

“Maybe you should paint it.”

“For her, not a chance. Besides, she is
not
staying.”

“She’s that bad, huh?”

“You have no idea.”

“Well neither of us knows her story and what she’s been through. Maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt. Under her layer of hardness, she might be weak and hurt. I’ve come to realize cruel people are the ones who tend to hate themselves the most and treat others like dirt in order to make themselves feel better.”

“Maybe you’re right, but it’s something I can’t relate to.”

“No, you, my girl, are an exception. I admire you,” Grace says.

“Why?”

Amber begins to stir, and her head drops to the side as drool drips down her chin.

“Ew, I hope I don’t do that in my sleep,” Grace says.

“Zeus does.”

I smile at her, and she puts her arm around me.

“With everything you’ve been through, you still carry a heart of gold. It would be so much easier for you to be miserable and mean. But not you; you’ve taken the hardest route possible.”

“Which is?”

“Forgiveness. It’s one of the hardest things for us to do. To actually be able to completely forgive and move on, not many are capable of doing that.”

“I’m not so sure I’ve done that.”

“Oh, but you have, dear,” she says. “Bruno told me about Keegan leaving you, and how much he hurt you, but you forgave him. Someone taught you how to forgive, no?”

“My father.” I lean my head over and rest it on Grace’s shoulder. She rests her cheek on me. “He always said, the stronger forgive those who hurt them. When you hold the anger in … all it does is tear you down and cause you to be vulnerable. And believe me, I still struggle with it every single day. Between my stepfather, my mother, and Keegan … I haven’t fully wrapped my head around my mom and stepdad yet, so don’t give me too much credit. Abandonment and torture aren’t things you forget. But I find when I’m focusing on them, it takes me away from what I have today. Cole, and you guys. You’re my family now.” But I can’t hide the way my voice quakes when I say Cole’s name.

Grace pauses and then says, “Are you two all right?”

I shift uncomfortably. I’m not really sure. “We’re okay, just working through some things.”

“You don’t sound convinced,” she says. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty good at reading people, and I can sense the tension between you.”

“That obvious, huh?” I sigh. “I know he loves me, but he’s keeping something from me, and I wish he would just spit it out.”

“Patience, dear. When he’s ready, he’ll tell you. Try to understand we’re not guards and we’ll never be able to comprehend what they’ve been through. Plus, every relationship has its highs and lows. Bruno and I definitely have had our lows.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah.” She laughs. “For a while, I thought I’d never meet a girl he hadn’t dated. But that was my own insecurity I had to deal with. He’s never given me any reason to doubt him. Not once. But we’ve definitely been through a lot in our two years together, and I have no doubt you and Cole will make it through this too.”

Amber starts twitching, first her eyebrows, and her mouth, followed by her hands, and now almost her entire body. She flaps around like a fish on dry land. She moans but doesn’t open her eyes.

I gasp.

“Help me, Grace; she’s having a seizure. We have to protect her head and try to hold her down.”

Grace does exactly what I ask her to do, and I kneel down, resting my butt on my heels so I can place Amber’s head on my legs and hold it still. As soon as my hands touch her face, I yank them away.

“She’s burning up,” I say.

“What should we do?” Grace asks with panic in her voice.

“To the showers. If we don’t get her temperature down, she’ll keep seizing … and possibly die.” And like a soldier carrying a wounded man, I get behind Amber, giving her a bear hug and locking my hands across her chest, as Grace grabs her legs.

We lift her up.

Amber’s thrashing, and sweat drips down my neck. Her body’s like a sauna. Her head rolls to the left and then to the right, then front and back. I tighten my hold on her because she’s getting harder to control.

“I’ll open the door with my back,” I say. Luckily, it’s not a door with a knob, or I’d have to drop her.

Grace nods, eyes wide.

Slamming my back into the door, it swings open, and my adrenaline races.

“Okay, open a stall, start the water, and let me know when it’s lukewarm.”

“Why not cold?”

“Cold water only cools the skin, and shivering would just cause her core body temperature to spike.”

“How do you know that?”

“Luckily, I paid attention to the nurses when I worked in the hospital.”

I kneel down as Grace lets go of Amber’s legs. She goes into the closest stall and turns the knob. Brown water spits through, but eventually it starts dripping nearly clear water.

“While it’s warming up, can you grab some towels? They’re in the corner cabinet by the sinks.”

“Got it,” Grace says.

Amber’s still seizing, so we have to work fast to remove her clothes and get a steady stream of water to lower her temperature.

Grace comes back with an armful of towels.

“Oh, that’s perfect.”

“All right, just tell me what to do.”

“Okay, fold one, and when I lift her head, put the towel underneath.” Grace follows my instructions.

Lowering Amber’s head to the ground, I kneel down, sitting on my heels, and hold her head in between my thighs.

“Good, now sit on her hips, face me, and hold her arms down.”

Grace breathes hard and her arms shake as she holds Amber down. I draw my knife and hold my breath as I begin to cut Amber’s shirt down to her midsection.

“This time, sit on her shins facing away from me, and yank her shoes and socks off.”

As Grace does this, I hear a gurgling sound. I look down, and Amber’s about to heave. Scooting back, I hold her head with just my hands now and turn it to the side as she vomits. The smell of curdled milk sickens me. I force the bile burning in my throat back down and notice Grace gag.

“Breathe through your mouth and try to get her pants off.”

Amber continues to puke. Grace sits on her thighs and unbuttons her pants, and then she moves backward, still sitting on her legs, pulling the pants further down with her.

“Amber, can you hear me? Open your eyes. I need you to open your eyes for me!” I say. But she doesn’t.

“I’ll check the water,” Grace says.

Using my pointer fingers, I pull open Ambers eyelids and see her eyes have rolled back into her head. Using the towel next to me, I wipe the sweat off my face and neck. My tongue’s dry, and my muscles ache.

“It’s ready,” Grace says. “I put towels down to cover the floor, hopefully it’ll be a good enough cushion.”

“Good thinking.” I smile a weak smile.

We pick her up the same way as before. I back into the shower, getting drenched, and slide down, leaning my back against the wall. I spread my legs apart, and Grace hands me the towel for under Amber’s head. I allow her head to rest on my pelvic bone and hold it with my trembling hands. Grace sits on her legs and gets wet as well.

“I don’t want you getting cold,” I say.

“I’m fine; I’m just praying this works.”

Suddenly, I hear a loud banging noise. Fearing the worst, I reach for my knife, but something streaks through the bathroom so fast, I don’t have time to react. Not far behind, Bill follows, cursing up and down about something I don’t understand.

“It’s loose!” he says. “Take cover!”

A huge, dark animal of some kind darts across the floor and hides behind the lockers. Its nails on the floor sound like nails on a chalkboard.

“Bill, what the hell was that?” I scream. Grace sits frozen in place, unsure what to do.

“Fantastic! It worked. I knew it!”

“What are you talking about?” I ask through gritted teeth.

“That there was Zeus,” Bill says with the biggest smile painted across his face. “And you didn’t even recognize him.”

My jaw drops to the floor, and I’m about to get up to beat Bill’s ass. Grace sits and stares, and Bill smiles like a lunatic. I want to slap him.

“What did you do to him? If you hurt him, I’ll kill you, Bill. I swear on my life. I’ll kill you.”

“Oh, Lusty, relax yourself. He’s fine, just a bit embarrassed, I think.”

“Zeus,” I say. “Come here.”

He pokes his head around the metal lockers with flattened ears and sad eyes.

Grace and I still hold on to Amber who seems to be doing a little better. Her body only twitches now, no more flailing.

Zeus slowly makes his way toward us with his head down and his tail between his legs. The darkness of his fur makes it hard to distinguish him from the shadows around him.

“Turn on another light,” I say to Bill. “Now.”

Grace quickly throws a towel over Amber to cover her.

“Geez, you’re very demanding.” He laughs as he walks to the light switch. “One. Two. Three. Here we go.”

At first, the bright light causes me to squint, but after my eyes adjust, my nostrils flare in anger.

“He’s gray! No wonder I can’t see him.” Zeus is so dark, it’s hard to make out his black mask. My muscles tense, and I glare at Bill. “What’d you do to his fur?”

“Dyed it with hair coloring.”

“You’re unbelievable.” I shake my head at him because there’s not much else I can do at the moment.

Cole and Bruno storm into the bathroom with worry etched onto their faces. I’m sure they heard my blood-curdling scream.

“What happened? You all right?” Cole darts right past Bill and doesn’t even notice Zeus. But Bruno does. He cocks his head to the right and to the left before he laughs. Cole’s eyes lock on mine, and he scrunches his forehead waiting for my reply.

“No, I’m not all right.” I point toward Zeus. “Look what Bill did to him.”

Cole spins around; his back straightens as he makes his way toward Zeus. Zeus whines and runs back behind the lockers.

“He’s black?” Cole asks.

“No, it’s actually dark gray,” Bill says. “But the lighting down here sucks, so he appears much darker.”

“Bill dyed his fur,” I say. “And now Zeus is embarrassed and keeps hiding.”

“What did you do that for?” Cole spits at Bill. “He’s not your dog.”

“Camouflage.”

“Come again?” Cole furrows his brows at Bill.

“Damn … you’re good,” Bruno says to Bill.

“Stay out of this,” Cole snaps at Bruno.

“You know, man, being darker could actually save his life,” Bruno says. “Think about it. He doesn’t stick out. He blends in.”