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“Yes, you wuss. Honestly, I’ve seen you with a stab wound, remember? And you're always so afraid of the stitches? It doesn't even hurt.”

“Man, when you're tugging at my skin like that, it makes...well, it makes my skin crawl.”

She scoffed at me and made me lean toward the kitchen counter as the lights under her cabinets were the brightest in the apartment. Tired as I was, it was quite comfortable sitting there, resting my head on my arms. I saw her put on latex gloves and find her equipment. Much as I hated getting the stitches removed, I had to admit that having a nurse as a friend was quite handy for someone like me. Still, I winced as she started cutting and pulling at the threads. It was something about how unnatural it was with the thread going through my skin and then being pulled out like that. Never liked it. It didn't take her long, though, and soon the little black pieces of thread lay in front of my eyes on a piece of paper.

“There,” she said, sounding satisfied. “Good as new. Well, from your last injury, at least.”

“Come on, Tegan. Don't be so hard on me. I was kidnapped after all,” I said going for pouty lips. It didn’t work.

“Yeah, you were. That's the only reason I’m not being hard on you. Do you know what could have happened if Yorov had gotten a hold of you?” Her voice held despair. Touching, really. But I absolutely knew what that would mean. She didn't know about that part of my past. But I knew what would have happened, all right.

“Maggie?” a familiar voice came from somewhere behind me. I turned around so quickly I actually got a little dizzy from the sudden movement.

“Maggie, what are you doing? Take it easy,” Tegan said as she tried to support me so I wouldn't fall off the counter stool. Then, she also noticed the third person in the room.

Andrea.

She looked awful. Her clothes were filthy, her hair in disarray. She'd lost her elastic band at some point. She looked so pale, with dark circles under her eyes. So thin as well. She was naturally slim, but the way she looked now—either they weren't feeding her, or she wasn't eating.

“Andrea, are you okay?” I asked knowing that the answer to that was no. But what the hell else were you supposed to ask people in this situation?

“Maggie? Something's wrong.”

“I know something's wrong,” I said, “but I am trying to fix it.”

“No, I mean something is off about the...men.”

“What do you meanoff?

“They seem worried. I don't know why. I can't understand them.”

Oh, I had an inkling about what was worrying them. One of them was late in coming back to wherever the hell they were keeping her. This time, though, I wasn't going to waste any of the time Andrea could give me.

“Listen, Andrea, can you tell me anything about where you are?”

She looked so scared standing there by Tegan’s coffee table. Like a small child. She had no control of herself or where she was, or what the men would do. The last time she had shown herself to me, I’d been made to understand that they hadn't raped her. Thank God for that, but one of them was violent toward her. I so badly wanted her out of there.

“I don't know,” she said. “The basement, it's dark and cold.”

“Okay,” I said and nodded with encouragement. “Do you see anything special in that basement?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is anything being stored in there?”

She actually seemed to look around at this question. As far as I understood her mental projection, she could see what her physical body was seeing as well as be somewhere else as she projected her image. The limitation was that she needed something to lock on to. Something she was familiar with. Like her locket which was currently in my purse.

“Some old furniture in one corner,” she answered me. “But that's it. There's a sink on one wall, but it's too far for me to reach.”

“Okay,” I said. “That's good. That means you're likely in a house.”

“Does that help?” she asked.

“Yes, of course it does,” I said, lying through my teeth. I still had no idea where they were keeping her. So, whether it was a house, a garage, a warehouse, a fucking boathouse? I had no idea.

I glanced over at Tegan, who was staying silent for this. She knew how important it was. Knew that this was the woman who was kidnapped. The one I was looking for. This was the reason I’d been in a car crash. That was the good thing about affiliates. They didn't make a fuss when things like this happened.

“What can you tell me about what you hear?” I continued.

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