Page 11
Marcus
When Evander walks into the weight room, I drop the bar I’m holding and rush over to meet him.
“You’ve got some fucking balls, man.”
I try to shove him, and even though he still hasn’t put back on all the bulk he lost in Ingrid’s torture chamber, he’s like a brick wall—solid and unmoving.
The hands of multiple people pull me back, but Evander shakes his head at them and they release me, returning to their workouts.
“I get your frustration,” he says.
“You get my frustration? Where the fuck is Briar? I never agreed to be separated from her.”
It’s been two long days of not seeing Briar or any of the others I came here with. I’m done with the bullshit questioning. Good food, hot showers, and a weight room don’t make up for not knowing where Briar is or what’s happening to her.
“Your intake will be done this afternoon,” he says. “Hers is already done. As soon—”
A shrill buzzing noise cuts him off, blasting through a speaker mounted in the corner of the weight room. It sounds over and over on full blast, like an alarm clock trying to wake up a corpse.
Weights hit the floor, workouts forgotten as people file out of the room. The aromium in my veins puts me on heightened alert, my hands jerking with an urge to respond to whatever’s going on. With my enhanced sense of hearing, I find the buzzing sound ear-splitting. It feels like when I was in the jungle on the island and I heard movement nearby.
Adrenaline courses through me, my internal voice telling me to get the fuck in gear.
Respond. Get ready. Kill the threat before it kills you.
“That means lockdown,” Evander says, pinching his brows together. “C’mon.”
“Lockdown? Why?”
His nostrils flare as he takes a long, deep breath in. Something’s not right. I force myself not to lash out at him, though aromium is telling me to knock him on his ass.
“Evander,” I prod. “Why?”
“Probably one of the cartels. But we—”
The soles of my boots vibrate, a deep boom making me flinch. When I reach for Evander’s T-shirt to jerk him closer to me so I can threaten him face to face, his arm flies up automatically, his forearm blocking my hand.
“Take me to Briar,” I yell so he can hear me over the buzz of the alarm. “Right fucking now, man.”
He lowers his arm. “That was a plane taking off. This place is a fortress. Lockdown is a precaution.”
My frustration boils over, becoming full-blown fury. “Take me to her or the deal’s off. I said I’d volunteer, but I never signed up for this shit.”
He holds my gaze for a second and then nods. When he wipes the back of his hand over his brow to clear away the beads of sweat, I narrow my eyes. It’s air-conditioned in here.
“What’s going on with you?”
A muscle flexes in his jaw as he responds tightly. “I’m fine.”
“Hey. You trusted me when you saved my ass on your old island. What’s changed?”
He shakes his head, his pinched expression making him look like he’s having an internal debate.
On the verge of speaking, he stops himself, then changes his mind. “When they kept me in that underground cell, they played a sound like this to keep me from sleeping. This and flashing strobe lights anytime they weren’t interrogating me. It caught me off guard, but I’m fine.”
“Are you, though?”
A glare flickers over his face. “I’ll take you to Briar.”
