Chapter 20

Nessa's breathing has been off for about an hour now. I can tell Boris is more than a little concerned at this point. Green spent at least five hours with her last night, and the more she bled, the weaker she became.

She ended up passing out in the chair, not an ounce of fight left in her body. She hasn't been given food since we arrived; I think it has been almost three days now, if not more. Gray leaves a small cup of water by her bed each time Green is done carving chunks from her body, but this time she hasn't woken up to drink it.

I don't think she can. There is more blood on the floor of her cell than water she has been offered.

I don't think Green realizes that Nessa will die before giving into him and this fecked up plan her father concocted. And I am terrified that's exactly what's happening right now.

A groan meets my ears, but a sputtering cough that comes with a cry of pain makes my fingers work faster at getting to this control panel. I no longer care that they're bleeding as they scrape into the stone, I just know we are running out of time.

"Please talk…please," Nessa begs. She has been insistent that the only thing that helps is to hear Boris and me banter.

Okay, maybe she said ‘the sound of your voices soothes me', but I can see it for what it is. She likes how we give each other a hard time, and I think she likes that underneath it all, we actually do get along.

"Seems like you've got some talented fingers there, Kid," Boris says. It is strained, which makes my hands shake. I am so close to the panel that I can see it, I just need to be able to pull it back so I can trip the circuit.

"Bet you have had a few women screaming over the way you know how to work them."

What the feck, Old Man? Why would this make her feel better?

But to my surprise, Nessa snorts. "I can vouch for them being well practiced." Her voice is weak and laced with pain.

That only makes my blood run hotter. "I can assure you, Sweetheart, the only woman these fingers have been inside of is you."

Well, fuck a cheese cracker, that was not supposed to slip out of my mouth.

"I am going to have to call bullshit on that," Boris quips.

I turn to look at both of them, my face turning red. "Call it whatever you want, Old Man. She's my one and only. Always has been, always will be."

Boris' jaw drops as does Nessa's. I have no idea why she's so surprised. For most of my childhood and teen years, Enya and Nessa were everything to me. I protected them, cared for them, watched out for them in every way I was capable of. If she thought those feelings went away because I had to disappear, she's dead feckin' wrong.

I turn back to my work, and the control panel finally comes into view. I have to stifle an actual laugh because they didn't even put a back cover on the thing, exposing all the wires to me instantly.

I have to be careful though. Our cells won't all be linked, but if I can get to the main power source, it's possible I could trip the main line. If these doors were wired using traditional prison patterns, there will be a circuit that will force the doors all open at once.

In prisons, it's in case of a fire or explosion, but here, it might just be what saves us. However, I look back at Nessa as her eyes start to droop, and I have a strong feeling we won't all make it out of here alive if all three of us try to run.

As I examine the wires, I hear Boris and Nessa whispering.

"That was not expected," Nessa says.

Boris chuckles. "You wanted a distraction, Little Fox."

Nessa huffs and then groans. "That was more like a life revelation."

I roll my eyes. If you ask me, it was really feckin' obvious. My fingers might not have been inside of other women, but I've watched porn. I learned what to do and how to do it. I even took a peek at the dark side.

But that's a story for a different time because I need to get us the feck out of here right now, and I cannot be thinking with my dick.

"Fuck," Boris says, and I turn around with the wires that I think might do the trick in my hand.

Nessa passed out again—blood slipping out of her mouth and her breathing is nearly ragged. Her lips are severely chapped and the pink of her mouth is almost white now.

Thankfully, I saved some water and food I had been given just in case this feckin' shite happened.

"Boris," I say, making his head snap to me. It's the first time I've used his name. "We won't all be able to make it."

I gesture to the wires, hoping I can keep our plan concealed until the last second. This will cut power and automatically open the doors, but we have no idea where we are or how many men are here.

"You have to be the one to go." I gesture to the food and water I have here so he can see what I mean.

There's no way we can move Nessa enough to get her out of here without the risk of puncturing her lung or heart with her broken ribs. Plus, the amount of pain she'll be in if we run with her might kill me.

His jaw tightens, but I can see he understands. He has to be the one to run, and we have to find a way to lock these doors in the dark with no power. Green has gone in and out enough that I know how the locks work. I was always the engineer, and now it's come to good use.

I give him one last look, then tap the wires together. A buzzing sound greets my ears, then the doors unlatch all at once and the room goes black.

Darkness surrounds us, but I hear the man outside, and I'm beyond thankful it's only one. He clicks on a flashlight and I lunge through the door directly at him.

He has no chance with the anger and adrenaline pumping through me. Before I know it, his neck is snapped to the side and the flashlight falls to the ground.

I grab it as Boris runs out of his cell and into Nessa's, using the light to shine it on him as he leans over her and presses a kiss to her head. She doesn't move, but he knows he has to go.

While he has a moment, I grab the gun from the dead guy's hands and find a knife and taser. Realizing his utility belt has a lot more in it, I decide to just take it all. He won't be needing it anymore.

Voices sound in the distance, a door unlatching somewhere, and I know we're out of time.

Boris approaches my side.

"She can't die in here," he says. I pull him in for a hug, landing a pat on his back a little rough.

"I got her, Old Man. Now hide in the shadows under the stairs until they pass. Once their attention is on us, you should be able to get to the top without an issue. After that, I don't know what there is for you to expect, but I saw a lot of grass outside. Run and get some help."

He nods and I hand him the weapons I acquired. When his light flashes on a table, I notice water bottles and granola bars along with a large first aid kit that must have been used to patch up the bite mark on Green's hand from when Nessa bit him back.

Boris pauses long enough for me to grab everything I possibly can and haul it all into my room, then I go get Nessa. Instead of picking her up, I slide the mattress she is on into my cell. Everything goes dark as Boris disappears, but I know what I need to do.

Quickly, I head back to the door and feel inside for the button. I know I saw it earlier, but when the tunnel leading out of here shines with lights headed our way, my heart rate kicks up even more.

Feck. Shite. Feck.

More light grows from the opening and finally, I see it. Pressing the button, the door slams back into place with a force I was not expecting, embedding itself into the stone more firmly than ever before.

Good.

I make my way to the panel and pull the wires out that should make the thing as useless as a toddler's toy phone. Typically, on these doors, once the safety latch is activated and the bolts are sealed, there's no way to open it without a backup code. But after disabling the backup, there should be no way to open it.

That might make things tough for when Boris brings in the calvary, but I have faith that once the threat is gone, we will be able to find a solution.

Nessa and Boris' doors are still open, so when the guards get to us, I can see their lights through the glass separating us. I've had time to study it in depth, and I believe it is close to six inches thick, similar to what they use for large underwater exhibits.

They would need to bring very heavy and very specialized equipment down here to break through that. And the steel doors have fail-safes in case they are tampered with. You can't just cut through it. Either way, it would take time, and that's all I need.

Green steps into Nessa's room, his gaze finding mine quickly as I stand between her and the glass, arms crossed.

I have about three inches on the guy even in his thick boots, so I am able to look down at him and really let the crazy loose. A grin spreads across my face as I imagine him bleeding at my feet, but that is nowhere near enough. I will make him bleed the same way he did to her, I will flay the flesh from his body and burn it in front of him. I will make him pay for what he's done to my love.

I know, at this moment, he can see everything I intend to do to him reflected in my eyes. A glimpse of fear has my lips tilted fully, showing my teeth.

He messed with my girl, he should be more than a little afraid right now.

The speakers no longer work because of the power shortage, but I see him begin to laugh. To him, this is all a game. He gets to sit in the background while the big boss gives him a job and then he gets to walk away, no real skin in the game.

But what he doesn't know is I love to carve skin up just as much as him. I don't eat it because I'm not an insane psychopathic cannibal, but I know how to make it hurt. Okay, maybe I am a little insane but definitely not a psychopathic cannibal.

As I stand there, staring at Green while he barks orders at his team. I am sure to let him see all of the deranged plans floating through my mind in my eyes. All the men around him frantically try to get through to us, but after a few minutes, they realize it's useless.

They have no idea who they are really up against, but they will find out soon enough. Before long, I will rip the flesh from Green's body and hang it up for him to stare at as he gasps for breath and screams in pain unlike anyone has ever known.

Mess with my girl, and you will feel the wrath of a demon worse than Hades himself.

???

All the guards left except for one sitting just outside of Nessa's cell, no doubt keeping an eye on us. I would be bothered, but I know they can't touch or hear us, and at least they set up a light so we can see. It's not much, but my eyes begin to adjust.

"Sweetheart," I encourage, touching her swollen face gently. I have ice packs from the first aid kit on her cheek and her ribs, hoping if some of the bruising can numb she will be able to breathe easier.

"Mm," she moves, then winces.

"I know, baby. I know. Here," I say, pressing a bottle of water to her lips, "try to drink. Just a little."

Her lips try to form around the bottle, but half of it dribbles back out. I can see it's hard for her to swallow, but she needs it. I keep going, every minute giving her a break, then a little more.

She slowly comes back to me, her eyes fluttering open just slightly. "Killer," she rasps so low I hardly hear it.

"I'm here now, I've got you."

She hums lightly, as if this were just a dream to her and she still isn't believing it.

"Don't leave," she murmurs.

"Sweetheart," I say as I push a strand of hair back from her face, "I never left."

She has no idea how true that statement is either.

What? You think I just stopped following her, watching her and everything she did after her sister died? If anything, that whole experience made me watch her more closely.

I contemplated killing her father so many times, but in the end I went against it because of the position that would ultimately put her in. She would either be hunted by her father's men, or she would have been forced to lead them. Neither was a fate I wanted for her.

And yet, one of those is still the hand she was dealt.

So, I watched her every move. I killed a few men who tried to attack her when her father wasn't looking, then framed them as suicides. It was easy, half of the Irish Reapers were total idiots. One of the men had a bullet hole in the back of his head. Except he was laying over a suicide note that wasn't even in his own handwriting, and they just nodded and accepted it.

Really, I had no idea how Donovan managed to stay ahead for so long being as thick in the head as he was. Surely there was very little room for thinking inside of that dense skull of his.

Over the years, Nessa and I went on many strolls through the woods together. Well, I knew we were together, but she didn't. Some call that stalking, I call it protecting the woman I love.

I watched her run to the cliffs when it all became too much, just to shout into the wind. I clenched my teeth as her father stepped on her neck at every turn in order to keep her under his thumb. I saw her cry, listened to her grieve, and then I witnessed her change.

It was a difficult moment for me to accept that she was no longer the woman I met on the side of the road, the one that saved me. But I continued to fall in love with all of her changes.

She went from a girl who loved to run barefoot through the woods to a woman who climbed trees to kill her targets. It was drastic and deadly, but also down right feckin' sexy.

"Cillian," she rasps, pulling me from my thoughts.

"What do you need?" I bend over her, listening carefully as her voice struggles to speak.

"I need you. B-both of you. D-did he leave?"

She tries to open her eyes, squinting as she peeks around the room.

"He went to get the team." I rest my hand on part of her back that isn't bruised or cut up and rub small circles. "He'll never leave you, Sweetheart. Neither will I."

A tear slips down her cheek onto the mattress.

"He already tried to leave."

I shrug. "I'll barricade the door next time."

A small smile tilts her swollen lip. "You can't force him to stay."

Her body aches for rest, so instead of arguing, I help her take one last sip of water before curling my body around her.

"I won't have to force him. We are all in this together." Her bottom lip trembles. "He told me so."

A small sob breaks free, and she pulls my arms closer to her.

"Just rest, Sweetheart. It will all be over soon and you will be in both of our arms."

She bobs her head slightly, her body instantly drifting to sleep. With the injuries she sustained and the way her limbs tremble in her sleep, I can tell she has an infection. The first aid kit didn't have things like antibiotics, just a few butterfly bandaids and disinfectants.

Feckin' useless. If you were running an underground torture fest wouldn't you want to have more supplies? I mean, come on.

All I can do is hold her tight and hope that Boris finds a way to get us out of this.