Sounds Like Obsession (Sounds Like 1)

AJ was outnumbered.

“No!” I screamed helplessly as AJ turned.

Hancock growled, baring his teeth as he and his partner tackled AJ and took him to the floor.

Chapter Twenty-Three

His fingers curled around mine. Tight and strong as if he was offering to let me siphon his strength. If we could hold on a little longer this would be over.

Over.

It was a word that had fractured us before. Now, it was more threatening and severe. A finality I hadn’t been willing to face. Not when he slipped out of my life. Not when darkness consumed me. Not when I struggled to carry on. Not when everything barricaded my next step.

He squeezed again. I looked down at the way our fingers threaded through each other’s. It was as if they belonged that way, tangled and meshed. As if they fit together. As if they had never held any other hands but these.

Maybe he clasped with such a fierce grip to siphon my strength. He needed me as deeply as I always had needed him.

Was that our connection? Had it always been? Was it give and take? Need ingrained with want? Or something so consuming we drained each other?

The suitcases and crates rattled across from us. We were wedged in a corner. Our backs against the metal cavern. Our feet tucked under us in an awkward position. I was grateful I wasn’t alone, but I didn’t want it to be like this.

I lifted my eyes to AJ.

There was no explanation for why he was here now. For how we had collided in this cruel joke. It almost didn’t matter. I had gotten past the shock. Enough to realize we weren’t going to have a happy ending.

“I’m sorry, Syd.” The words sounded bitter and full of regret.

I nodded. I didn’t think I could put it into a sentence. “I know,” I whispered. “I know.”

“I should have told you sooner. I should have—”

I stopped him. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“If only I had—”

“No,” I snapped. “Just no.”

“I haven’t given up,” he replied.

“And if I have?”

The only light came from a crack under the door. Our ankles were bound with zip ties. Any movement and they pinched together, cutting into my tender skin. The blood had seeped through my jeans. A few droplets oozed into my shoe.

My head pounded. The cut over AJ’s left eye looked vicious. He needed stitches. I knew the skin over his brow was thin, and the bleeding was naturally worse in that area, but it looked like something out of slasher film. For the time being it had crusted over enough to keep the blood from running into his eye.

That was how I measured our wins down here. The breaths I could still take. The beats my heart could still make. The pain my body still felt.

Pain was good.

Pain meant we hadn’t died.

Yet.

We had no way of knowing what had happened with the marketplace sale. What Beechum had been instructed to do. How many more hours or minutes we would circle while the pilots lied to the passengers. We were helpless and at the mercy of the two sleeper marshals upstairs. There was also no way to predict if there were others like them. I realized the flight crew might also be armed. There were clearly not a regular crew.

They were trained in a level of deception that was frightening.

“I want to tell you about Project Compass.” AJ’s voice sounded certain.