Chapter Thirty-One

We decided that we would head to Louisiana in the morning. Our bags were all in the SUV Fitz let me borrow, and all we’d need to do was get up and go. But my mind wasn’t letting me sleep. Neither was Pepper. She had her leg over me and her head was hanging off of the bed. I moved her off of me so I could get out the bed.

I didn’t know what to do so I started pacing. It was dark in the room, but my new senses let me see anyway. It only took me thirty seconds to decide I couldn’t be here anymore. So I grabbed the keys and went out the door just like I was. I didn’t realize I wasn’t wearing shoes until I got in the car and started driving.

Phin taught me and Ferris some basics of driving with all of our free time, so it wasn’t nearly as terrifying. I didn’t need directions, because my body told me where to go as my soul pulled me to Fitz. That son of a bitch.

I wasn’t going for him. I was going for Ferris. He needed to know what happened to his mom, and I needed to give that to him. The file room would have everything I needed to know about him. In theory. They would also have more information on me and my parents. I could find out what they learned from that new batch of blood they took from me. Assuming they used it.

The drive was a long one, and I hoped that I would be back before anyone noticed I was gone. They would be either angry or worried. I’d just make it up to them somehow. Maybe I could offer to sleep in the tub so Pepper could have her own bed again.

I drove in silence through the dark night, because I had a ridiculous fear that the music would attract attention, even played quietly. My headlights weren’t even on. Those men could be anywhere, and I wasn’t about to get arrested by them without shoes on. That would be lame.

I parked Fitz’s car a half block from the facility, turned it off, and slipped the key into the pocket of my shorts. Then I stepped out of the car. I closed the door as quietly as I could. There were no streetlights, so I was on my own trying to see in the dark. Really wish I had shoes on.

The sidewalk felt cold despite the fact that it was the middle of August. It was always chilly at night in Washington. So I walked through the biting wind to where I needed to go.

Ten minutes later, I was looking at the familiar candy shop, where I first met Fitz. The window had been fixed since I drove the SUV into it a few weeks before. The inside lights were on, but no one was inside. It made me think they did that just to keep intruders out. Can’t have people finding a top secret base of evil now can you?

I crept around the parking lot just in case there were cameras put up. Giving up my location was not happening. I moved behind the bushes that lined the area, and went around the building. In the distance I could spot the willow tree I was named after. It looked the same as ever.

The back of the building was just as dark as the street had been. I could see a few doors, including the one I came out of with Ferris, and the one I went into with the guards last time I was brought in. So I knew how to get in. I didn’t know where to go once I was there. I’d only ever seen the cells and the medical area.

The closer I moved, the more I felt Fitz. He was inside. No doubt about it. My body was pulling me to its other half. I knew that I would never give it what it wanted. I just hoped that it wasn’t a need I was keeping from my soul. Damage wasn’t something I could afford.

I ignored the call to him and picked a door to go through. It led to a stairwell that looked like it was a hundred feet deep. I started walking and listened hard for any other person that might be around. I heard a few guards as they walked by outside of the doors, but they couldn’t have heard me. I pressed my ear to the door, and listened until I heard them leave. Then I opened it.

I slipped into a hallway that was absent of people. My heart felt like it was going to explode. I am here. Here. The place I was so scared of being locked up in. All for a file. No. All for Ferris. He was worth this terror. So I kept going.

The hall was new to me. There were no hints of where I was on any of the doors. At least the medical rooms had numbers on them. These doors were close together, making me think the rooms were small. Maybe for storage. I could be close. I kept walking down the corridor as I tried to observe the place I was in. The walls were stone and tall. Every fifteen feet there were buttons that looked like the alarm Fitz hit when I escaped.

I walked for a few more minutes before I heard voices. Then I panicked. I froze where I stood as they got closer. My eyes darted around the space as I looked for somewhere to go. I stood near a stone staircase with a dark space between it and the wall. I ran to it.

It was pitch black, but I could still see. My back pressed against the wall as two men with Remingtons over their shoulders walked by. They were chatting casually about what they were getting for breakfast the next morning. So blasé about the fact that they had shotguns ready to kill with. That they were in a house of murder and torture.

My foot went back and it hit something cold. Glass, I’d decided. I ducked down, and felt around with my hands. There was a pane of glass that felt about a foot and a half wide. When I pushed on it, there was a little give. So I pushed harder. The glass snapped right off its moorings and landed on the ground below, shattering loudly.

The second the sound rang out, I heard the guards again as they started coming back. I stood quickly, but there was nowhere to run. I moved to my right under the stairs. Within seconds the guards stood where I had been. I was a total of ten feet from them. I didn’t breathe as they looked for the source of the sound.

“What the hell was that?” one man asked the other.

“I don’t know. It sounded like glass.”

“I can’t see a damn thing,” the first man huffed. “If it was glass then it had to come from upstairs. Come on.” He started moving, and his dumb friend followed. How could they not know their own base of operations? Whatever, better for me that way.

I moved back to the spot I had been in, and poked my head inside. There was the dimmest light possible in the far corner of the place. I dug Fitz’s phone out of my pocket, and turned the flashlight on. It illuminated the room below and I could finally see what it was. A library. The length was maybe fifty feet by twenty-five, and there stacks upon stacks of books filled the room. I bet my mother loved this place when she was younger. She was always a reader.

I held the phone in one hand, and shimmied my way through the window, landing so I could avoid the glass. It mostly worked. I cut my heel open, but it wasn’t so bad. I held the phone back up, and started walking through the stacks. The books looked old, and felt worn as I ran my hand over them. None of them were what I was looking for. I needed to find the file room.

Since I didn’t have much time, I moved quickly. I searched the room for something useful, and found the light I saw before. It was from an antique lamp on a desk. There was a book lying open, and I looked it over. It was nothing of importance. Just some old book of poems. I shut the light out so I couldn’t be seen and started searching the corner I stood in.

I found another door that I thought led to the hallway, but when I opened it, I found a small room. The only other exit I found was a wide staircase that went up. This room however, did not have another exit. Just a desk and a wall lined with file cabinets. I smiled at the sight of them.

My hands went to the wall as I searched for a light. It flicked on, and I closed the door most of the way. The phone went back in my pocket as I moved over to the cabinets. The first one opened with ease, and it contained just what I thought it would. I pulled one of the files to try and get an idea of what I was looking it.

The file had a number on the front, but a name inside. It was a man I’d never heard of. It had medical records and a history of his time here. Like most stories I heard, he’d been here since he was a baby. I didn’t find anything important in the file. Or the next. Or the next. I went over all of them in the drawer and not one of them was from a person I knew. So I moved on.

I looked around for another file to go through when I found a drawer with a lock on the front. Bingo. If there was a file on me and Ferris in here, it’d be in that drawer. But, wouldn’t ya know it, it’s locked.

“Fuck me,” I huffed.

I should have felt it before, but a hand went over my mouth and an arm around my waist. I was hauled back, and spun around. Fitz had me up on the desk, and stood between my legs before I could react.

“Was that an invitation, Sugar?” He smiled.

My eyes narrowed at him. Three fucking weeks I waited for him to come, and I got nothing. Here he was and he looked happy. Like the wait was nothing for him. Because it wasn’t. He didn’t care that I had waited.

I shoved him backwards, and got off of the desk. “You’re not allowed to touch me.”

His voice was mocking when he spoke. “Oh no. Please don’t deny me your cold and reluctant touch.”

My cheeks burned with embarrassment over his clear lack of desire for me. Not that I ever wanted him to desire me, but knowing that he didn’t was a little unnerving. Especially after what he tricked me into.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Willow? I risked my life letting you go, and you come back? I asked you to do one thing. Don’t die. Do you want to die? Is that why you’re here?” With every word he moved closer, and his voice grew angrier. I backed up until I was against the wall.

“I’m here for files. You can leave now. Go back to whatever bullshit you were wasting your time with.”

“Sleeping actually. I woke up when I felt you here.”

How romantic. He wasn’t mentioning the Link by name, or the kiss. I needed to remind myself it was because he didn’t care.

“Well, I don’t want you here. Leave me be so I can do this.” I started trying to pry open the file cabinet, but it wasn’t budging.

His hands went to my hips as he moved me away from the cabinet. I looked up at him and tried not to hurt. There was no denying the pain was there. I felt betrayed that he didn’t come for me. Fuck everything I was supposed to feel and how much I was supposed to hate him. The cold, hard fact was that I wanted him to come for me, and he never did.

I’m going to hurt you over and over again as long as we live and that’s a very long time, Sugar. I’m going to let you down, and I’m going to fail at being what you want me to be. I’ll never be good for you. I told you I’m not a good man.

I heard the words like it was yesterday. He told me that he was going to do this. So why was I surprised? No, I wasn’t surprised. I was disappointed.

He smiled again, and it made my body warm. “Why don’t you let me take it from here?”