TORTURE ME: The Bandits MC Page 21

  “Are you drunk?” she asked. She could definitely detect the influence of alcohol on his speech. She knew him too well, still able to detect when he wasn’t completely sober.

  “No, I took a nap. Just a little hung-over now,” he muttered on the other end of the phone.

  “What’s up?” she asked, pacing quickly in an attempt to get her blood rushing faster, trying to get warmer despite the wind breaking against her face.

  “The girls, Fi,” Gage practically whispered before clearing his throat. “The girls,” he repeated. “They need us. We can’t give up. I know you’re getting married. I know you’re gone. Forever. But the girls…”

  “I know,” Fiona said, her voice coming out more reassuring and soft than she had intended. “I know. I’m not giving up. I was never going to give up. Do you really believe in me that little?”

  Gage laughed a little on the other end, but Fiona could tell that it wasn’t genuine. “I know, I know,” he said. “I should trust you more. You’re tough. Toughest person I know.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Fiona muttered, thinking back on her argument with Carl even as she got further away from the hotel.

  “I do,” Gage said softly, almost inaudibly under the howl of the wind in Fiona’s ears.

  “Listen, we should meet up,” Fiona said. “Tonight. We have no time to waste. I’m sorry…I’m sorry about what happened before. With Carl. It’s just something I had to deal with, but it’s a distraction, and it can wait. I’ll deal with him after we solve the case.”

  “Alright,” Gage agreed. “I’m at home. Do you want me to meet you anywhere?”

  “No, I’ll head there now,” Fiona said. “Go back to sleep. I’ll let myself in. You keep the spare key under the mat, right? I’ll be right in, like twenty minutes from now. Just nap, okay? You need it.” Especially after the fucking we did earlier, she added silently.

  Gage murmured something, but Fiona couldn’t quite make it out. A second later, his breathing changed, deepening as he slipped off into sleep. Fiona couldn’t suppress a slight smile as she lowered her phone back to her pocket, picturing Gage’s peaceful face as he slept.

  But less than a minute later, her phone rang again, tearing her out of her calming thoughts. Gage must have woken up and not realized that she was still on the way, she figured, so she answered the call right away, without looking at the ID.

  “Hello?” she said again, albeit a lot less patiently this time.

  The voice on the other end of the phone was hoarse and low. She could barely make out the words as the man who spoke hissed, “You better back the fuck off, bitch.”

  “What? Who’s this?”

  “You know who this is,” the man said in his low, gravelly voice. “And you don’t want to meet me. Believe me. It wouldn’t be pretty. It never is for cunts like you.”

  The line went dead before Fiona could think of what to say in response. Her heart thudded in her chest, sending her blood coursing through her veins like it was trying to escape from her body. “Jesus Christ,” she muttered to herself, her fingers shaking as she looked through her recent call list only to find the number was blocked. That meant trying to reverse the call wouldn’t work. She’d have to have it traced. Maybe Gage could help.

  She didn’t know who just threatened her, but one thing was clear, it was the murderer, giving them their first solid lead since this entire investigation began.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Gage awoke violently, gasping for air as a pair of delicate, familiar hands furiously shook him.

  “He called me,” Fiona declared, continuing to shake Gage awake even after he began to pry open his eyes. “Honey, he fucking called me. Wake up, wake up!”

  “Who?” Gage asked, sitting up in bed and blinking rapidly to adjust to the light that Fiona had just switched on next to his bed.

  “The fucking killer,” Fiona responded, sitting down next to him and placing her hand on his shoulder. “His fucking voice was in my ear, Gage.”

  Gage’s brain still took several seconds to fully process what she said, but when it did, his entire body shook itself awake, all at once. “Shit. Shit, are you serious?”

  Fiona just nodded, a small smile spreading across her face, her eyes glinting like she’d just told him good news.

  “Why are you…happy?” Gage asked. He knew it wasn’t the most pertinent question at the moment, but somehow, it felt like the only one that really mattered.

  “Because!” Fiona practically shrieked, shaking Gage by the shoulder. “He’s scared! He knows we’re after him, and he’s scared. That means we’re close. We scared him somehow, even if we don’t know how. He knows about us. That means we stumbled onto something that he didn’t want us to find. We have to keep looking, searching over everything we’ve got until we find what it is that he’s so scared of.”

  “How do you know it was even him? It could have been one of those kids we intimidated, trying to freak you out for revenge.”

  Fiona shook her head. “No. It was him. I know it. I just know it. Trust me. The….way he talked to me. He hated me. It wasn’t just a little scuffle he was mad about. He was terrified and for good reason. I freaked him out somehow, and he needs me to back off. I fucking scared him!” She grinned and punched the air. Under different circumstances, Gage would have been smiling right along with her, happy that she felt powerful. But instead, his stomach turned over, feeling sick like he’d eaten something poisonous. If it really was the murderer, how did he know how to contact her? How’d he get Fiona’s number?

  “Did you see a number on the caller ID?” Gage asked, slowly shifting his legs around so he could sit with his feet on the floor rather than curled up under him on the bed.

  Fiona shook her head. “No, no, it’s blocked, of course. But I figured maybe your powerful connection could help you trace it, at least geographically. Maybe we could narrow down the specific area that he lives and eliminate various suspects that way.”

  Gage nodded. “Good idea. I’ll get on it right away. There’s a guy across town that’ll take care of it.” Gage paused and cleared his throat, staring at Fiona, who was practically giggling on his bed, a sight he’d love to see in virtually any other context. But right now, it sent chills down into his bones, making him physically shiver beside her. She doesn’t know how scared she should be, Gage thought. She doesn’t know how bad this could be, even though she, more than anyone, should know how real the danger is.

  “I’ll go with you,” Fiona said, reaching down to take Gage’s hand into her own, her pulse pounding against his wrist, so hard that he could feel it even through two layers of skin and sleeves. “I want to be there when you catch this fucker. For all of them.” For me, her eyes seemed to say, the darkness within hinting at the fear that she must have felt, despite her giddiness.

  Gage was tempted to argue with her. He really would have preferred that she stay put in the apartment where he knew she would be safe, but somehow, he knew that she wasn’t going to listen to him, at least not right now. “Well, let’s head back to the compound, then,” he said, getting to his feet and going over to his dresser to pull out a shirt to wear. “Take a change of clothes with you,” he instructed her, knowing that her bag full of supplies was still in the other bedroom. “We might be there a while.”

  Fiona rushed into the other room to do as she was told. “We’re going to get him,” she yelled over her shoulder, returning a minute later with an overstuffed purse under her arm. “Okay, let’s go.”

  Gage led them back across town to the Bandits’ compound, where his contact Jack usually stayed. Gage slipped into the side entrance of the compound rather than going through the front, wanting to avoid waking up any unnecessary people that could distract them from the matter at hand. He walked into Jack’s room without invitation or warning, allowing Fiona to wait outside the door while he jostled his friend awake.

  “Jack, come on, I’ve got a job for you to do,” Gage said as he shook Ja
ck by the shoulder.

  “What the hell, man? Can’t it wait till morning?” Jack asked, stubbornly keeping his eyes closed even as Gage switched on the light.

  “No. No way. It’s got to be done as soon as possible. There’s no time to waste. It’s a location tracing job, Jack. You’re the only one that can help us.”

  Jack sighed, slowly blinking his eyes open and grimacing at the brightness of the light beside his bed. “Jesus, okay. Fine. Just…give me a minute, alright?”

  “Nope, come on,” Gage said, pulling the blanket out from under Jack, despite the latter’s protests, practically dragging him out of the bed himself.

  “Fine, fuck, fuck! Just let me get my gear together. Christ,” Jack said as he finally got to his feet, stumbling over to a desk filled with computers and advanced equipment that Gage didn’t recognize or understand. Jack sighed as he pulled out a small laptop computer from inside of his desk, clicked it open, and typed in a complex password to unlock the screen. “Do you at least have the cell phone in question?”

  “Yes,” Fiona said, finally stepping into the room. “It’s mine. Here.” She pulled her phone out of her purse and placed it down on the desk next to Jack. “There you go.” If Gage had any doubts that Fiona meant business, they officially evaporated that moment. Back in the day, Fiona used to never let him look at her phone, let alone hold it himself. He used to be suspicious that she had something going on the side, but he finally just realized that she was an incredibly private person. She guarded her space and personal property fiercely, probably as a result of the trauma she endured as a teenager. But she was willing to sacrifice it in an instant if it meant saving another girl.

  “Alright, now leave me alone,” Jack said grumpily.

  “What?” Fiona asked incredulously.

  Jack sighed again, deep and drawn-out, sounding about seventy years older than he actually was. “I can’t work well with people looking over my shoulder. Get out of the room and give me an hour, maybe two. I’ll get an approximate address for you, okay?”

  Gage could tell Fiona was hesitant to leave Jack alone with such a crucial piece of evidence, but after he nodded at her, wordlessly telling her to trust his friend, she relented, backing out of the room and closing the door behind Gage after he walked out.

  They stood silently for several long moments, propped up against opposite walls, listening to Jack’s non-melodic humming from inside his bedroom. But there was something nagging at Gage—actually, there were several things nagging at him, given the whole fiancé fiasco. But there was one thing in particular that he needed to say, even if it hurt to push the words out.

  “I never talked to you about what you did earlier,” Gage said, biting down on his bottom lip in nervousness.

  “What did I do?” Fiona asked, and judging from her tone, it was clear that she felt as anxious about this topic of conversation as Gage did, which somehow helped him calm down a little bit.

  “With the girl. Tori. You…you did really well. I think I never really understood what it is you do before right then,” he said, referring to her victim advocacy work.

  “Oh. Well, thank you,” Fiona said a little stiffly, like she was uncomfortable or didn’t know what to say.

  “Yeah,” Gage said, thinking back to how he felt when he saw Fiona grab the younger girl’s hands. “Yeah, it was really special, watching you do that.” He cleared his throat, suddenly overcome with emotion. “I was thinking, maybe Abby is looking down and sees this, you know? I guess I always thought that there was some part of her still hanging around, not moving on. And maybe she needed to hear what you said to Tori today. Maybe then she could let go.”

  Fiona’s brow furrowed as she stared silently at Gage for a long moment before finally speaking. “Maybe there’s another reason you think she’s still around. The diary.”

  Gage felt his body flush a little, heat rising up his chest and neck and face, but he stayed calm, even though it felt like he was being accused of a crime. Still, he let Fiona continue.

  “I know why you haven’t read it yet,” Fiona explained slowly. “And it’s not because you want to respect your sister’s wishes. That’s not it.”

  “What is it, then?” Gage asked, but it came out more like a sigh than a question.

  “It’s the last little bit of her on Earth,” Fiona said softly. “You don’t want to read it because then…then there’s nothing left. There’s no mystery that she might say something else to you. That’ll be it. Forever. But as long as you don’t read it now, you can picture yourself reading it in the future, hearing from her one last time. It’s your lifeline, isn’t it? Waiting to hear from her again?”

  “I never really thought of it that way, but you’re probably right,” Gage said, picturing the way Abby used to hunch over her diary, hiding it from any prying eyes with her own body, guarding it with her life. It was as if it was her life, like it was her soul, being poured out onto paper. It was the one place where she still lingered on the planet, and somehow, Gage figured that once he read it, she’d be gone for good. There was something selfish about that, trapping his sister here on Earth, where she’d been tortured and hurt and killed. But it was what Gage needed more than anything, especially since he was alone now. He needed to have some part of Abby to hold onto so that he could go on being strong or at least pretending to himself that he was okay. He couldn’t lose both Fiona and Abby. He simply wasn’t equipped to handle it, but it was going to happen no matter what.

  “Your fiancé seems nice,” Gage lied, changing the subject and tapping his fingers against the wall behind him to distract himself from the falsehood leaving his mouth.

  Fiona scoffed a little and shook her head. “He’s usually not like that, by the way. He’s very calm and nice back home. I’ve never seen him get so angry.”

  “He’s just worried about you,” Gage said with a shrug. “I would feel the same way.” In fact, if he was being really honest with himself, he did, actually, feel a knot of anxiety at the base of his stomach, getting wider and wider the more he thought about the phone call from the killer. It just didn’t make sense. Why would he target Fiona and not Gage?

  “He’s being an ass,” Fiona confessed sharply, rubbing her own arms a second later, clearly chilly as a result of the compound’s low temperatures. “I know what I’m doing. He doesn’t get to just show up and start controlling me, even if we are planning to get married.”

  “So that’s still happening?” Gage asked, his voice coming out low and hesitant. His stomach pulsed nervously, but he had to ask the question. He had to know if their lovemaking changed anything for Fiona.

  Fiona didn’t answer right away, instead reaching up to tangle her fingers through her hair. Gage knew she was scratching her own scalp to calm down. She always used to do that when she got stressed out from work. “I don’t know, Gage. I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck.”

  “What do you mean?” Gage asked.

  Fiona blew out her breath and shook her head, raising her shoulders up in a shrug that communicated her mixed emotions. “On one hand, I’ve got a life back home to worry about. I’ve got a nice guy who treats me right, who doesn’t deserve what I’ve done to him.” She paused to shake her head at herself, a bitter smile spreading across her face as she considered her predicament. “And then…there’s here. There’s the city and all its dirty problems, all the women who need my help. And…there’s you.”

  Gage’s heart picked up in his chest, skipping several beats like it was trying to jump-rope rather than send blood throughout his body. “Yeah?” he whispered, his tongue practically aching with the effort of asking her to repeat what she’d just said.

  Fiona nodded, squeezing her arms closer to her body like she was giving herself a hug to calm down. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t know, Gage. I don’t fucking know. It’s not as simple as…caring about you, which I do. I really do. But I’ve got to choose a life that isn’t going to kill me. I’ve got to pick a life that’s not going
to torture me and remind me of all the shit that happened over and over and over again. Please understand that.”

  “I do,” Gage murmured, but he couldn’t stop himself from pressing on. “But have you ever thought that maybe this is what you were supposed to do? That maybe what happened to you happened for a reason? So you could help these women like you did with Tori earlier today?”

  Fiona shook her head. “There’s no easy explanation for it. A psychopath got his hands on me, just like he did to Abby and Tori and all the other girls that got hurt. There’s no deeper meaning than that.”

  Gage opened his mouth, ready to argue with her some more, when the door to Jack’s bedroom opened and Jack popped out, his eyes wide and his mouth dropped open as he clutched Fiona’s cell phone to his chest.

  “Well, shit, that took a lot less than an hour to do,” Fiona commented, but Jack just shook his head and focused his attention on Gage.

  “Gage. This is serious. This is bad.”