“I said there’s nothing for you to see, Nova.” Jacob’s voice hardens but instead of sending me fleeing in fear as I pretty much think he intended I do the exact opposite.
I stop cold and turn on my heel. “No, you said I needed to leave. There’s a difference.” Curiosity pulls my eyes to his and away from the gray and white still image of the front parking lot.
Knowing how well my next question is about to go over, I ask it anyway. “What are you afraid I’ll find, Jacob? Got something to hide?”
Four fat knuckles swing out and narrowly miss my jaw. I grab the nearest thing and throw it in his face. I only wish the cold coffee would have done more in stopping him from fisting the knot of my ponytail and using it against me.
With more force than I realize he has, Jacob throws me through the door and I land with a thud against the back wall of the hallway.
“What is it you don’t want me to see, Jacob?” I say viciously. He’s looking rather sweaty and pissed when he charges. I catch a shoulder to the stomach and I can’t fly but I do a nice job of tumble ass over feet. Not so much as instinct rather than pure unfiltered rage drives me to reach for the blade I procured from a sleeping Ares.
With all of my non-existent experience at fighting, I drive the four-inch blade through my friend’s thick boot and hear a gut-wrenching crunching.
Oh shit. I scramble back when he howls in pain.
Behind me chairs screech over the hardwood flooring.
“Jacob?” a random voice booms into the back hallway.
Damn.
My back shoots straight up and the whip of fear slashing me locks my knees.
“I’m going to kill you, you bitch.” He sounds set on committing to his promise which has me swallowing the lump of fear choking me.
Furious black eyes latch onto me and yes. He is very much set on wanting me dead. Okay, so perhaps it was a little rash of me to slash all of Ares’ tires and an even worse idea coming here. Alone. In the middle of the night. During some kind of bro get-together with the city’s ugliest dudes.
Fog starts to clear around the idea I might have stepped into the deep end of the pool here.
Sometimes I really do wish I had even a dash of luck on my side and even better fighting skills. A gun would be nice too. As it stands, neither is in my possession at the moment and my only form of defense is currently buried in my former friend’s foot.
Jacob glances at me and then back to the knife sticking out of his foot like he reads my mind.
Good or bad, I’m here now and there is no way in hell I’m leaving without what I came for.
“I’m going to need that back.” I wrap a hand around the knife and yank. I don’t look back as I dive over him and lock myself in the security room.
Peeling screams slam into the door a few seconds before real fists make contact with the wooden panes. If he decides to put all two-fifty plus pounds of his weight into getting through that door, there won’t be much else between him and me making good on his wish to see me in the morgue. I slam the thumb drive into the USB slot and pull up the recordings from that night.
“What?” There’s no way. Why? My gut hurts at the idea of my friend betraying me. No, he’d never do that. Right?
“What the hell, Jacob.” I find myself yelling for the tenth time.
“Why couldn’t you be a good little bitch and just stay gone. You’ve fucked everything up now. The Volkovs will be here in a minute.” Another railing against the door.
Panicked, I say, “You let this happen to me?”
My heart hammers. Nerves make working the keys a little difficult but I hit rewind and play it back again. Only instead of seeing Monday evening roll over into Tuesday, it jumps straight to Wednesday. A full day is missing from the files.
Dread sinks in and my palms become sweaty as I hit rewind and play. Rewind and play. “What the hell are you into, Jacob?” In all my time here the man never gave thought to the security system. And now the specific time I’m looking for is erased?
Deep down the bitter acid burning a hole in my stomach tells me I already know the answer to my questions. And that makes getting out of this room all the harder. The second I throw that door open he’ll have me again. Think, Nova.
My sister. Maybe this is how I get back to her?
Back at the door, I hold my palm over the wood and start with the first words I think.
“Jacob. Where is she? Where are they holding her? Tell me and I’ll walk. You’ll never see me again. I won’t call the cops.”