Page 127 of Torn In Two

Ace called back that he had nothing either.

We all looked at X.

He was tossing Froot Loops into his mouth one by one, stopping only when he realized we were all staring at him. “What? I don’t even know where my phone is right now. Wasn’t me who called for a meeting. I’m good. Real good. Got my friends. Got sugar. Got a guy tied up in Whip’s spare room that we’re thoroughly enjoying messing with. Who needs a meeting?” He wandered to my side and slung his arm around my neck. “Do you want to come meet Jones? He’s number forty-seven on the list. Fresh outta jail for beating his grandmother nearly to death for the measly three grand she kept under her floorboards.”

“I needed the money for drugs, and the old bitch wouldn’t give it to me! It wasn’t my fault!” Jones shouted from the bedroom. Then tacked on. “Help me, please! Call the police!”

X snorted on his laughter, yelling back something I didn’t catch because my mind had only just caught on to something else.

“Wait.” I held up a hand, interrupting X tormenting his victim. “Are you honestly saying none of you called me for a meeting?”

Whip clapped me on the shoulder, his hand heavy and reassuring. “We’ve all been here since last night when we picked Jones up off the street. Nobody’s had time to call a meeting. Though we’ll probably all need one when we’re done here.” He glanced at X. “Some of us are having a little too much fun.”

As the oldest of the group, he was the unofficial leader. The others followed his lead during group times, and it was clear to me now it was the same when they were “working.”

“But if none of you called the meeting…” My words were quiet, catching all of their attention. I jerked my head up in horror.

Whip said the words all of us were thinking. “Only one other person has that number.”

X chuckled like the maniac he was. “Trig’s back!”

38

KARA

Willa and I ran through the hallways, her leading the way because she knew the rabbit’s warren better than I did.

But the mob of men who’d made it through the door were relentless, held back by security staff only long enough to give us a head start.

“Here!” Willa slammed her security pass against a scanner.

“Open, open, open,” I muttered to the automatic doors, throwing a glance over my shoulder, fear racing down my spine as the first of the mob broke away from the hapless security guards.

“Wait there, Jesus bitch. Time for you to go home and for me to get paid!” It was the big guy, the one who’d demanded my tongue be cut out for speaking the word of the Devil.

His eyes gleamed with pure malice and evil, the kind I’d grown up being warned about.

I’d dismissed all of Josiah’s teachings, but the eyes being a window to one’s soul rang in my ears, and in that instant, staring at that man and the obvious intent in his eyes, I renewed my belief in evil, if nothing else.

My head flashed with nightmarish images of what would happen if a man like that got his hands on me. A lifetime with Josiah might have been more humane.

The door sprang open, and I grabbed Willa’s hand, dragging her through with me. On the other side, both of us spun in unison, pushing the door shut, the sound of the locks reengaging the sweetest thing I’d ever heard, apart from Hayley Jade’s little voice.

We were outside the hospital, the door we’d taken one that wasn’t in regular use. I glanced around, trying to get my bearings as to which part of the hospital we were in.

The first thumps of the men trying to get through the door had both of us backing away quickly, our tiny reprieve clearly over.

Willa breathed hard, her chest rising and falling from the exertion of running. “The door won’t hold long.” She spun around, starting up a jog because neither of us had another sprint in us. “My car is just over there.”

A vehicle felt like a beacon of safety. But… “Keys…”

Willa jingled the lanyard her security pass hung from. “A nurse is never without them. We still need them for many of the older parts of the hospital, as well as some drug storage and our lockers. I keep my car key on here too, because Lord knows I lose one set of keys often enough, I’d be a disaster with two.” She pushed the tiny button on the side of one key, and a car to my right lit up, the doors unlocking.

“I can’t drive.” My single lesson with Hayden definitely didn’t give me the skills to get behind a wheel unsupervised. Terror coursed through me at the thought of trying to get away alone, knowing it would only be minutes before those men found a way out here.

Willa gave me a look like I was insane. “Girl, you think I’m leaving you? You clearly don’t know me too well at all.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and scrambled into the passenger seat, giving the doors to the hospital one last fearful glance as Willa gunned the engine. “They’re holding.”

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