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Little tease.
“Hey, Bun. You about ready?”
“Yep.” She holsters her guns after checking the sights. “Ready to get Keys back and take out Ramsey.”
I pull her into a tender embrace, careful to avoid any hidden knives she might have on her person. “It’s okay to be scared for him. Or to be worried. We’re all worried about Keys. We’re all a little scared.”
“Even you?” she asks, her face buried in my chest.
I choose my next words carefully, mostly because lying to Bunny while she’s armed is a dumb move. “In a way, yes. I’m worried about Keys. I don’t want him to get hurt, and I know every second we waste is another second they could be torturing him like they did you. And I’m scared, too. I’m scared we might already have wasted too many seconds.”
“Don’t be silly!” She pushes back and grins, a grin that doesn’t quite reach those pink contacts. Where did she get those from? The same place she had her outfit stashed? “He’s fine. We’ll get there in plenty of time. The Cobra wouldn’t hurt him like he hurt me. He knows better.”
I open my mouth to disagree, but she’s already skipping down the hall, swinging the shiny new bat that she got from God-knows-where.
This isn’t good. Bunny’s in full denial mode, which is only going to backfire if we don’t find Keys in exactly the same condition he was before they took him. Any harm comes to Keys, and Bunny’s carefully constructed fantasy will come crashing down around her.
Time to find Doc. If I can’t talk any sense into her, it’s up to him.
To my surprise, I find Doc readier than any of the rest of us. He’s already out in our new-to-us stolen van, setting up a mock triage area. Where Bunny is all false hope and fantasies, Doc sits at the other end of the doom spectrum, readying himself for the worst-case scenario.
“Do we have everything we might need?” I ask, climbing in beside him and helping with setup.
“You mean besides a healthy Keys?” His hand trembles as he draws a syringe of sedative. “Sure. Everything’s just about set. I have enough here to set bones, drain fluids, add fluids, suture lacerations, cauterize—”
I cut him off before his planning sends my own anxiety skyrocketing. “Okay, okay! I get your point.”
Doc looks me square in the eyes. “He might not make it. We should all know that.”
“I know that, and I think Neil even knows that, but Bunny’s a lost cause. I was hoping you could kind of wrangle her daydreams back to this side of reality for us. Y’know, before she loses her last shred of sanity.”
“Actually, I’m on Bunny’s side on this. I think if we dissolve her illusions before we go in there, she’ll go in a broken Bun. If we let her wail on them for a while before she faces reality, we might have a fighting chance.” He sighs. “Her hold on her emotions has always been a strange one. She can keep up a brave act in the face of some pretty terrible odds, but I don’t doubt that one of these days she’s going to snap. If we snap her early, we lose all hope of winning in this.”
“You’re talking like a homicidal Bunny is our only chance here.”
“It might be.”
Doc’s grim outlook doesn’t help improve my own mood. I go back inside to get the last of what I’ll need. Rope. Guns. Knives. Then, as an afterthought, I stick one last thing in my pocket before I meet the others at the van.
A lollipop.
We’re coming for you, Keys. Just hang in there a little longer.
Chapter 33
Keys
As far as kidnappings go, I suppose this could be worse. They’ve fed me, given me water, let me use an actual toilet, and thus far the physical abuse has been minimal.
Unfortunately, I don’t know how long that last one will hold.
Ramsey wants me to use my apparently infamous skills to access our banking institutions and transfer all of Bunny’s holdings to him. He seems to think I rememberhowto access her accounts. Once he realizes I’m not kidding about my brain damage, I’m probably headed for a not-so-swift execution, courtesy of the horde of Vipers hanging around here.
I’ve tried reasoning with the man. Explaining that Bunny’s not a real threat to him. Telling him that since he’s got Neil’s laptop, she has nothing on him anymore. Nothing seems to be working. He’s dead set on a dead Bunny. First, though, he wants a destroyed Bunny. Not quite sure what he thinks stealing all her money will do to her. She’s been living on minimal cash flow for years. I don’t even know what “holdings” there might be to transfer. For all I know, she donated everything she ever gained to the poor.
Then again, for all I know she’s freaking loaded.
Something tickles at the back of my brain, something that’s like a mental itch. I know that some part of me knowssomethingthat could be useful here, but that part remains hidden. It’s fucking frustrating, more frustrating even than the restraints they’ve got me in. If I want to take a piss, I have to have a Viper hold my dick for it. I try to pretend it’s Neil, but my imagination just isn’t that good. I still am acutely aware that a total stranger is aiming for me. Ramsey’s also got someone feeding me and tipping the cup for my water intake. I’m allowed to sit up in front of a computer at a desk, but unless I need to empty my bladder, I remain zip-tied to the chair with my hands behind my back.
