“Is she okay?” I asked.
“She’s far from okay. She’s messed up. But she’s alive. She was in a room that looked…” He shook his head. “This isn’t a meth lab at all. Her room was a replica of her room at the facility, right down to the bassinet for her doll. The abandoned meth lab is a cover. Fuck. I need to get her out of here.”
“We can’t go yet. Marjorie.”
“Ryan and Ruby are still on it. They can help you. I have to see to my mother.”
Marjorie was first on my mind, so I had a hard time understanding. But I’d do just about anything for my own mother, so I nodded. “Call them and tell them to meet me a block over. Dickless here says that’s where Marj is. He might be bluffing, for all I know.”
“He’s out cold,” Talon said.
“Maybe. I don’t trust him.”
“Looks out to me. I’ve got my mother. You go find Marj.” He tossed me the flashlight without so much as letting his mother drop.
I caught it easily. “Count on it.”
Talon carried his mother out of the room and then out of the mobile home. He’d have to carry her all the way to his truck, which was several blocks away by this time. He could do it. Talon had carried many wounded soldiers out of harm’s way in Iraq. He’d returned as a hero because of his actions.
I hurried back to the thin man, who was still passed out on the floor. “For God’s sake.” I quickly unbuttoned his shirt and removed it, ripping it into strips. I bandaged his wound. I’d call 9-1-1 on the way to Marjorie.
I hurried out. Next block over, he’d said. What the fuck did that mean?
Didn’t matter. I had to find Marjorie. I had to.
And I would.
Or I’d die trying.
Chapter Eighteen
Marjorie
I trembled, my heart pounding.
These are my friends.
Do it! Do it! Do it!
Then I jerked.
Alex had moved ever so slightly.
“Easy,” Colin said quietly behind me.
&nb
sp; I slowly brought my hand—
No. This blade. This friend. This friend who had seen me through some of the most difficult times in my life was not my friend.
It was all a lie.
Using this blade on myself didn’t make me stronger. It had made me weaker. Now I needed strength. I needed the strength to save myself, but the blade didn’t give me that.
Still, I had to.
Had to…