Ripped (13 page)

“It’s just down the hall and down the stairs,” said Cade. “You’ll be fine.”

I tried to smile at him. I couldn’t. I wanted to clench my hands into fists and beat his chest with them until he agreed to take me with him and not leave me alone.

But he was already walking off in the opposite direction.

Into the dark.

I watched him go.

He was swallowed up by shadows, but I could still hear his footsteps.

I waited.

But then I couldn’t hear those anymore either.

It was completely silent.

I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to move, but I knew that I had to. So, I slowly picked up my foot and took one step in the direction that Cade had told me to go.

It felt… wrong, as if I was walking against invisible resistance in the air.

I do not believe in ghosts
, I thought. Hard.

I pressed forward. I decided that I would simply look down at the floor, not anywhere else. I could only see a few feet ahead of me very well anyway. Everything was all ominous gray shadows.

I peered at my feet. I had chosen to wear a pair of pale blue tennis shoes. They were covered in sparkles, and they had white laces. I didn’t wear them all that often, so they were still quite white and clean.

After this little trip to the dirty mental asylum, they might not be, though.

I thought of them spattered with blood, because the next door, two feet ahead of me, was going to fly open, and Ice was going to drag me inside and slash my throat, and my blood was going to spray everywhere.

I shook myself.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Despite my intention to look only at the floor, I couldn’t help but steal a glance over my shoulder.

Something moved in the periphery of my vision.

I snapped my head back, my body electrified. What the hell had that been?

I didn’t see anything now. It had looked like a shadow, like nothing but darkness.

I gulped.

“I do not believe in ghosts,” I whispered.

And suddenly, the air seemed chillier.

I shivered, hugging myself.

In the distance, there was a loud crash and the sound of hysterical laughter.

I jumped.

And then I remembered that was Cade. He was supposed to make noise, draw Ice out.

“You’re being stupid,” I muttered to myself. “Think about Starling. Focus on her. There’s nothing in this place that can hurt you.”

Footsteps.

They were coming from the opposite direction that Cade had gone, the direction that I was walking towards.

They were coming fast. It was the sound of someone running.

The spirit of some mental patient, trying to escape, running through the halls for all eternity?

Something rounded the corner, running out ahead of the window. It was a man in a ski mask.

Fuck.

Ice.

My heart stuttering, I threw myself sideways, into the very room that I had thought he would pull me into.

Inside, it was brightly lit, sunlight streaming through a wall of windows. The room was empty except for a tattered dividing curtain, which was half falling off the rungs. I flattened myself against the wall, trying desperately not to breathe very loudly.

Had he seen me?

I tried to hear his footsteps, but it seemed like my damned heart was beating so loudly…

But there they were.

He was still going fast, and he was coming up the hallway.

I couldn’t be sure if he was coming for me, or if he was going to go past me.

I held my breath.

I clutched at the wall, my fingernails against the concrete.

The footsteps grew nearer.

My body shook.

Nearer still.

Oh, God, he had seen me. He was going to come in here, and all those visions I’d seen of him, they were going to come true. He was going to cut me to pieces, and all the time, I would only see his eyes, never his face. His damned eyes would be the last thing I saw before I died.

I cringed, wishing I could melt into the wall.

And the footsteps passed me.

I sagged against the wall, letting out my breath.

He hadn’t seen me after all.

I waited for several minutes—long minutes—just to be sure that he was gone.

And then I peered out into the hallway.

Nothing there.

I stepped out of the room and darted down the hallway. I had to get to Starling.

* * *

Cade

“Well, you found me.” Ice’s voice.

I turned. I was in what had once been some kind of meeting room. It was vast, with big windows, full of overturned couches, the stuffing coming out on the floor. They were all probably motels for mice these days.

Ice was across the room from me, framed in a doorway. He was still wearing his mask.

“Hiding as always, I see.”

He stepped into the room. “I thought I explained the mask to you.”

I nodded slowly. “Oh, yeah, I remember. You’re so fucked up in the head that you actually think the mask is the real you.”

He laughed. “
I’m
fucked in the head? You’re the one who can’t even accept what you are. All your stupid rules, Cade. You know that you want all the things that I want. You just won’t let yourself.”

“Just because I want something doesn’t mean I should take it,” I said. “There are better reasons to be alive on earth than selfish ones.”

He snorted, taking a few more steps into the room. “Yes, you’re a real humanitarian.”

“You’ll want to take off the mask, Ice,” I said. “It’s going to be an impediment to this interaction we’re about to have.” And I strode across the room to stand directly in front of him.

He didn’t take off the mask. “Interaction? And here I thought you’d just put a bullet in my back, the way you do all your other hits.”

“I’m not here to kill you.”

“Don’t even look them in the eye, do you? Afraid you’ll enjoy watching them die, aren’t you? Afraid that if you watch, you’ll get so hooked that you won’t be able to stop.”

I grimaced. “Take off the mask.”

“Why run from it? Why not be what we are? You and I together, we could have so much fun, Cade. We could paint the
walls
with blood.” When he said it, there was a wistful longing in his voice.

And I felt the tug of it too. I wasn’t going to deny that I felt it. But I didn’t much appreciate his bringing it up, rubbing my face in it. This was all my private struggle, and I’d shared it with him, because I had hoped that I’d find a kindred spirit in Ice. I was always so terribly alone, and I wanted him to be just like me, so that someone,
anyone
, could understand.

“Why should I take off the mask?” he said.

I slugged him. My fist in his jaw. It was muffled a little bit by the knit fabric, but it stung my knuckles anyway.

His head whipped to one side. Then he turned back to look at me, surprise in his eyes.

“Take off the mask,” I said. “Or you won’t see the next one coming either.”

Ice ripped the mask off his head, and there he was—just a normal looking guy with freckles and red hair.
A ginger
, I thought, smirking. He bared his teeth and dove onto me.

I sidestepped. “If you want to hurt someone, Ice, hurt me.”

Ice was behind me now. “I never wanted to hurt you, Cade. All I wanted was for you to understand. And you
do
. And yet you refuse—” He ran for me, leaping on my back.

I shook at him, trying to get him off, my hands going to his hands, which were holding onto my shoulders.

He brought his legs around my hips. He tightened his arms around my neck. “I don’t want to kill you,” he said in my ear. “But if I have to, I will.”

I went down on one knee, fighting to get air. I struggled against him, but I couldn’t get free.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Shell

Starling was right where Cade had told me she would be. She was strapped down to one of those gurney things that I had seen in the hallway. There was a gag in her mouth, and her eyes were wild and frightened.

I hurried over to her once I got inside the room, trying not to look at the little table that was set up next to her, full of sharp, rusty instruments. Ice had been going to use them on her, undoubtedly, and I didn’t even want to think about that.

I tore the gag out of her mouth.

She screamed.

I stuck it back in. “Shh!”

She was still screaming.

“Starling, shut up,” I said in a fierce whisper. “What if he hears and comes back?”

She stopped screaming.

I pulled the gag out of her mouth. “I’m here to rescue you.”

“How did you find me?”

I moved over to start undoing her restraints. “That guy that took me hostage, he knew how to find Ice—”

“The guy that killed Larbi?” Her face contorted.

“Well, yeah,” I said. “But he didn’t kill him because he didn’t like him or anything. He killed him because it was a job. Did you know that Larbi was funding terrorists?”

“That’s a lie,” she said.

I yanked open the last restraint. “Look, how well did you really know him?”

“I
loved
him.”

“He was paying you to fuck him.” I glared at her.

She scooted off the gurney and onto her feet.

I helped her.

“Look, Shell, you just don’t get it. You’ve never been in love.”

“I was
engaged
.”

“To a gay man.”

“I loved him.”

“You couldn’t
really
love him.”

I glowered at her. “I’m starting to regret the fact that I even rescued you.”

“Well, you haven’t really rescued me yet, have you? I mean, we’re still inside this place.”

“Right,” I said. “Well, let’s go, then.” I started for the door. “Follow me.”

She hurried behind me.

* * *

Cade

I couldn’t breathe. I scrabbled at Ice’s arms, trying to loosen them. But it wasn’t working.

Ice chuckled softly. “After all this, after all your holier-than-thou code nonsense, all it took me was one move to choke away your—”

I drove my elbow into his ribs.

He coughed. He didn’t let go.

But I’d won back a larger range of movement. I elbowed him again. Harder this time.

His grip on my neck loosened. He grunted.

I elbowed him again.

He stumbled backward.

I got to my feet, stretching my neck.

“Look,” he said. “This is stupid, what we’re doing. You’re my friend. You’re my best friend.”

“You don’t even know how to have friends.”

“As if you do. You know we’re both different than them. We aren’t weak like they are. We don’t form those stupid attachments.”

I advanced on him. “That’s where you’re wrong, Ice. Because I do form attachments. I do care. That’s what makes me different than you. That’s what you’ll never understand. Because you
are
fucked up. You’re broken.”

His face twisted. “Take that back.”

I punched him again. An undercut to the chin.

His head snapped backwards. He howled in pain. “Fuck you, Cade. Fuck you!”

I punched him again. This time in the stomach.

He doubled over. He reached for me, gasping. “You know that I don’t stand a chance against you in a fist fight, you asshole.”

“Maybe you should work out more,” I said. “Spend a little less time picking on people weaker than you.”

He put his hand on my chest. “You won, you won,” he managed. “Let it go. Take the damned girl, and let’s forget about it.”

I grabbed him by the throat and drove him backwards into the wall. “I don’t think so.”

His eyes bulged.

“You’re going to leave me alone now,” I said. “I’m not going to see you again. And you’re not going to take anymore government jobs. Leave those to my team, okay?”

He nodded. He tried to speak, but only a rattle came out.

I pulled him forward, both hands on his shoulders. I slammed his head into the wall as hard as I could.

He was unconscious instantly.

I let go of him and he fell to the floor in a heap.

* * *

Shell

“I’m not going anywhere with him.” Starling was ripping off her seatbelt and climbing out of the car. “When you said we were waiting for someone I thought maybe the police or the FBI or someone official. But no. You came out here by yourself with
him
.”