Page 4 of Intertwined Souls
“Isn’t Connor one of yours? Just going to leave him behind?” Ryker retorts, trying to stall.
Without looking away from Harley and I, the man lets out a small chuckle. “He fulfilled his purpose. Do what you want with him.” He gestures for us to walk ahead of him, going farther down the road. Hearing a small click, I glance back to find a gun in my face. “Keep going. Just making sure everyone behaves. Otherwise, I have no problem putting a bullet in the back of your head.”
About twenty feet along, we come across a truck that is tucked away on the side of the road covered by some overgrown weeds and grass. He has us keep walking until we get to the bed of the truck.
Before we can attempt anything, which wouldn't be much with my sluggish movements, a sharp pain hits the side of my head and darkness consumes me.
Every bone in my body feels weak and extremely heavy. I bite my lip to hold in a pained groan when I try to move my arms and legs. Peeling open my eyes, it takes them a while to adjust to the small, dark room I am in.
There is a crack under the door, allowing light from outside the room to come in. A small shuffle to my right has me jolting up, despite my body protesting the fast movements.
Letting my eyes fully open, the room spins, and it takes a full minute for it to stop, leaving me with a pounding headache. Glancing over to where I heard the noise, I find Harley. Sitting on the old, cracked concrete floor right next to the dirty mattress I'm on. Her knees are pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them tightly.
She takes me in from head to toe but doesn’t say anything. Her eyes gloss over, and I see a small amount of tension leave her shoulders—relief that I am awake.
Locking my gaze with her dull hazel eyes, I speak from a dry, scratchy throat, “Are you okay?” I don’t see any visible injuries, but she could still be hurt.
She pinches her lips together but says nothing, breaking eye contact to stare at the door that sits ten feet away from us in the tiny storage-like room we’re in. There is nothing else in here. Just us and this filthy mattress.
Her not speaking worries me more than anything else. I know what can cause the silence. What drags you down so low you have no choice but to shut it all down. I don’t know how long I was out, so I have no idea when we got here or how long it’s been. Scooting forward towards Harley, I slide off the mattress and place my back against the wall right next to her. A dizzy spell hits, and I have to squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for it to pass.
A few deep breaths later, the room slowly stops spinning. My body feels heavy, and a pressure sits on my chest, very slowly taking me down. I have no idea what I was given, but pushing those thoughts down, I focus back on Harley.
I can worry about myself later. She is what matters right now.
“Harley?” I murmur, letting my head fall back against the wall as I glance at her. She still hasn’t moved; I don’t even think she has blinked. “Harley, you need to talk to me. I don’t know how long we have until someone comes in here.”
Growing slightly frustrated with her frozen state, I force my muscles to fucking move and grip her chin between my fingers, making her look at me. She stares right through me, not truly seeing anything besides whatever has consumed her and taken her down to the deepest depths of her internal hell.
“Baby girl,” I growl. “That’s enough. You can break down, retreat, hurt me, do whatever you need to do when we get the fuck out of here. But right now, I need you to find the anger—the rage that I know is coursing through your veins, and use it. I don’t know how much help I’ll be or when my body will collapse, so I need you to shove it all down and get it together. Break later.” I snap the last part, hoping that if anything, I can piss her off and pull her out of her head long enough to figure out what to do next.
Harley jerks her chin out of my grip, shooting me a glare and letting out a shaky, “Fuck you, Cade.” There’s not much heat behind it, her emotions still shoved to the back of her mind, but it was enough to pull her from the complete shutdown.
Nodding, I let out a breath. “Good. Grab hold of that flicker of anger I know is there and use it. The rest we can deal with later when we get the fuck out of here.” She squeezes her hands into tight fists, her jaw clenching almost painfully, but she gives me a subtle nod, so I continue. “Did you see where we went? Fill me in on the basics since that motherfucker knocked me out.”
“David,” she whispers and then straightens her back, narrowing her eyes at the wall across from her as if she can see his face there. “His name is David. He’s Tammy’s father.”
Fuck. Her father? Where the hell did he come from? I shake the questions away and focus on my girl right now who I know needs me to keep her centered.
“Harley, I need you to focus. Don’t go down that rabbit hole yet. Where are we?”
“He didn’t cover my eyes or anything. After he threw you in the bed of the truck, I tried to pull one over on him. Grayson had snuck me a knife, but before I could get it out, he pointed the gun at you again.” Her nostrils flare. “He tossed me a zip tie and told me to bind my wrists together or he’d shoot you. After I got them on, he walked over and tightened them before pulling me to the passenger seat of the truck. He tied my bound wrists to the headrest above my head. I cursed him out, reminding him that the others would come for us. He wouldn’t get away with this.”
Running a frustrated hand through her red messy curls, she lets out an annoyed sigh.
“He sliced all the tires on the bikes. They wouldn’t have been able to follow us. We drove for about forty minutes. I’m not too sure where we are, since I don’t know the area. But we didn’t go back the way that we had taken to get to the beach earlier. This is some abandoned warehouse.
“There are also two others here working for him. I couldn’t try anything—I couldn’t do fucking anything,” she seethes. “Every time I tried, he held you over my head. I couldn’t let anything happen to you.” She murmurs the last part so quickly I almost don’t hear her. Blinking away the tears that have formed at the corner of her eyes, she asks, “Will they find us? What do we do?”
Keeping my composure, knowing Harley needs me to keep it all together—even as fury that I haven’t felt in years floods my veins—I ask, “What did you see when they brought us in?”
Harley pinches her lips together before answering with a furrowed brow, “Not much. It’s one big room with some old couches and a half-rotten bar on the far side. There are a few doors on the left side of the room, but we went right and came down a hall that had two doors and then this one at the end.”
“And there’s two others with David?” At this, she nods. I exhale, taking stock of my body as I respond, “Alright. My body is slowly shutting down. I can’t move too fast without getting dizzy, but if you can get your hands on a gun, I can help us get out of here. Harley,” I give her a stern look. “You will have to fight. Don’t freeze. Don’t hesitate. You remember everything you’ve learned; all the anger swirling inside of you needs to come to the surface. The breakdown can wait until we get the fuck out of here. Got me?”
Harley locks her gaze with mine, using my eyes as her anchor. She rolls her shoulders back and takes a deep breath. “Got it.”
“Good. Now, come here.” I demand.