Chapter 46 Chapter 46
They grabbed me before I could scream. Two men in black masks appeared from nowhere and dragged me into a van. I kicked and fought, but they were too strong. A cloth pressed over my mouth and nose, and the smell made my head spin. Chemicals. Sweet and sickening. The world blurred at the edges and then went dark.
I woke up in a concrete room with a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. My hands were zip-tied to a metal chair, and my head throbbed from whatever they had used to knock me out. The air smelled like mold and rust and something else. Fear. My fear.
A door opened, and three people walked in. Two men and one woman. The woman wore a business suit and had cold eyes that looked right through me. She pulled up a chair and sat down facing me.
"Lisa Chen," she said. "We finally meet properly."
"Where is Damien?" My voice came out hoarse.
"Your boyfriend is not your concern right now. What concerns you is staying alive long enough to see tomorrow." She crossed her legs and studied me like I was an insect under glass. "Let us talk about the flash drive."
"I do not know anything about a flash drive."
She smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. "We both know that is a lie. You took it from Victor's office. You gave it to Damien Kane. And now you are going to tell us everything you saw on it."
"I could not open the files. They were encrypted."
One of the men stepped forward and backhanded me across the face. Pain exploded through my jaw, and I tasted blood. Tears sprang to my eyes, but I bit down on my lip and refused to cry out.
"Try again," the woman said. "What did you see on the flash drive?"
"Numbers. Names I did not recognize. Dates." I kept my voice steady even though my face was on fire. "Nothing made sense to me. I am not part of this world. I do not understand your business."
"You understand more than you pretend." She leaned forward, and her perfume mixed with the smell of the room. Expensive and out of place. "You infiltrated our meeting tonight. You posed as one of Victor's people. That takes intelligence and planning. So do not play stupid with me."
"Damien made me go. I did not want to be there."
"Yet you stayed by his side. You helped him gather information. You are more involved than you claim." Her fingers drummed on her knee. "Here is what I think. I think Damien Kane trusts you. I think he tells you things he would not tell anyone else. And I think you know exactly where he keeps his operations data."
"I do not know anything. Please just let me go."
The woman stood and nodded to one of the men. He pulled out a knife, and the blade caught the light. My heart started racing, and I pulled against the zip-ties until my wrists burned.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," the woman said. "The easy way is you tell us what we want to know, and we let you walk out of here. The hard way involves my associate and his knife. Your choice."
I looked at the blade and felt my stomach turn. But I thought about Damien. Thought about everything he had done to protect me. Thought about the war The Syndicate had orchestrated and all the lives they had destroyed. I could not give them what they wanted. Could not betray him even if it meant my own death.
"I do not know anything," I said again.
The man with the knife stepped closer. The woman sighed like I was disappointing her. "Such loyalty. It would be admirable if it were not so foolish. Damien Kane does not love you, Lisa. He is using you just like he uses everyone else. You are a tool to him. Nothing more."
"You are wrong."
"Am I? Then where is he now? Why has he not come for you?" She checked her watch. "It has been two hours since we took you. If you mattered to him, he would have found you by now."
Her words hit harder than the slap had. Two hours. Had it really been that long? Maybe she was right. Maybe Damien had cut his losses and run. Maybe I was just another casualty in his war.
No. I shook my head and pushed the doubt away. Damien would come. I knew he would. He had to.
The man with the knife grabbed my arm and pressed the blade against my skin. Not cutting yet, but the threat was clear. Cold metal against warm flesh. I closed my eyes and tried to prepare myself for the pain that was coming.
"Last chance," the woman said. "Tell us where Damien keeps his operations hub. Tell us his plans for the eastern sector. Tell us who his contacts are in the police department."
"I do not know." My voice broke. "I swear I do not know."
The blade pressed harder, and I felt it break skin. A thin line of fire traced across my forearm, and warm blood dripped down to my elbow. I bit down on my lip so hard I tasted more blood, but I would not scream. Would not give them the satisfaction.
"You are tougher than you look," the woman said. "But everyone breaks eventually. It is just a matter of time and pain."
The man moved the knife to my other arm. I braced myself. Counted backwards from ten in my head. Tried to go somewhere else in my mind. Somewhere safe.
The door exploded inward with a deafening crash. Wood splintered and metal bent, and suddenly Damien stood in the doorway with a gun in each hand. His eyes were wild and dangerous, and when he looked at me bleeding in that chair, something dark and terrible crossed his face.
"Get away from her," he said. His voice was ice.
The woman reached for her own weapon, but Damien was faster. He shot the gun out of her hand, and she screamed. The man with the knife lunged at him, but Damien dodged and fired. The shot was clean. Center mass. The man dropped.
The second man tried to run but Damien was already moving. He crossed the room in seconds and slammed the man against the wall. One punch. Two. The man went limp and fell.
Damien turned to the woman who was cradling her bleeding hand. "You have three seconds to tell me who else is in this building."
"Go to hell."
He pressed his gun to her forehead. "One. Two."
"Upstairs! There are four more upstairs!"
Damien knocked her unconscious with the butt of his gun and then rushed to me. He cut the zip-ties and caught me as I nearly fell forward. His hands were gentle on my face, and his eyes searched mine.
"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"
"My arm." I showed him the cut, and he took off his jacket to wrap around it.
"We need to move. Now." He helped me stand, but my legs were shaky. "Can you walk?"
"I think so."
Gunfire erupted from somewhere above us.