Taylor shrieked and began to cry.
“I see we need to work on your manners. You’ve regressed while you’ve been gone.” Pete sounded annoyed.
Although he claimed he wasn't really interested in killing anyone, he had also freely admitted that he enjoyed breaking things. She and the others were merely objects in his mind. Objects he intended to shatter. If this didn't work and they couldn’t get free, then the best she could do was play along, soak up whatever mercies in the form of painkillers and anesthetics he was willing to offer, and pray that her partner was able to find her before she was too broken to put back together.
“How’syourleg feeling, Avery?” He headed to the bed.
Even from here, Chloe could see Avery was shaking.
“It-it’s fine,” Avery stuttered.
Any hope he wouldn’t notice the ripped out IV was quickly squashed. “What happened to your IV?”
“I’m sorry,” Avery said quickly, and Chloe was sure she was going to spill everything, but then she said, “I was sleeping. It came out. I must have been tossing and turning. I didn't meanto.”
Chloe held her breath, waiting for Pete’s response. She had the feeling Taylor and Avery were doing the same thing.
“You don’t have to be sorry for that, Avery.” Pete picked up her arm. “I’ll just put it back in.” He cleaned the small cut on the inside of her elbow where she’d pulled out the needle, then started a new IV in the back of her hand.
They were in the clear.
So far, he had bought everything.
But the hard part was coming up.
Chloe prayed she could keep herself under control and pretend she was still tied up when he came to her. She had a feeling he hadn’t just come in here to check in with them.
He was here to hurt them.
More specifically, hurther.
Since she was the only one whom he hadn’t injured yet, she knew she was next. And by the looks of him, he was anxious to get to it.
She hoped she could do this.
She hoped it worked.
But she was having major doubts.
She’d been wrong before. She had been so sure that the killer was Harley Zabkar, but it wasn't. Her gut had been wrong. Maybe he really had been so desperate for money that he’d gone to a loan shark, and when he’d been unable to pay it back, they’d threatened him. Maybe he really hadn’t heard them identify themselves as FBI agents and had shot at them because he thought they were there to hurt him.
If she’d been wrong about that, then maybe she was wrong about her plan.
Her gut obviously wasn't something she could trust yet.
She had messed up by going to Taylor’s house with just Savannah. She never should have taken her friend, who couldbe dead because of her. She should have known that the killer would never have let Taylor go even if he had found a new victim. She should have anticipated this. She should have made sure that they put someone on Taylor. She should have been more careful when they walked into the house. She should have noticed him hiding in the room. She shouldn’t have let him drug her.
So many should haves.
Tom had always told her that she couldn’t be impulsive. That she had to be more careful. She hadn’t listened to him. She’d thought that as long as catching the bad guys was her number one priority, then everything else would be okay.
Now, everything was messed up, Savannah might be dead, and soon she could be, too.
If she made it out of this, she would never be this careless again. She was going to make sure that she paid attention to everything.Everything.
That wasn't the only thing she was going to change.
She was going to make things work with Fin.