“Hmm?” Absently, he looked at Ariel again. “Yes, I suppose you might have seen her on some of the media reports. Now—”
“Mr. Gaines!”
He stopped his pivot back to Eve, frowned down at Ariel. “Yes, yes? What’s so urgent? I have work.”
“What…what is the most time? I mean, how long is the longest anyone—any of the women you’ve brought here—has lasted?”
His eyes brightened. “You’re such a delightful surprise to me! Are you challenged? Have I tapped your competitive streak?”
“I can’t…if I don’t know how long, I can’t try to last longer. Will you tell me how long?”
“I can.” With her clutch piece in her hand, Eve sat up on the steel table. “Eighty-five hours, twelve minutes, thirty-eight seconds.”
“No.” He looked baffled first, then red-faced and furious. “No, no. This is not allowed.”
“You don’t like that, you’re going to hate this.”
Eve shot out a stun, on a setting a little higher than was considered proper procedure, and dropped him like a stone. “Fuckhead,” she muttered, and prayed she wasn’t going to pass out or vomit.
“I knew you’d come.” Tears swam in Ariel’s eyes. “I knew someone would come, and when I saw them bring you in, I knew it was going to be okay.”
“Yeah, hold on.” She had to slide to her feet, give herself a moment to balance. “You did good. You did real good keeping his attention on you so I could get to my piece.”
“I wanted to kill him. I imagined killing him. It helped.”
“I bet it did. Listen, I’m a little off center. I don’t think I’d better try cutting those ropes just yet. You’ve got to hang in there a little bit longer. I know you hurt, but you’ve got to hang in.”
“I’m so cold.”
“Okay.” Eve managed to pull off her coat, then draped it over Ariel’s bleeding and battered body. “I’m going to secure him, okay? I’m going to secure him, then go call for backup.”
“Would you bring me back some water?”
Eve laid a hand on Ariel’s cheek. “Sure.”
“And maybe a whole bunch of drugs.” While the tears spilled out, Ariel struggled to smile. “This is a really nice coat.”
“Yeah. I like it.”
22
TWO ENERGY BOOSTS WITH A TRANQ CHASER, Eve thought. The combination had her feeling stupid, shaky, and not a little sick. But she not only had to stay on her feet, she had to do the job.
Reaching around, she fumbled at her back for her restraints. Either they weren’t there, or she’d lost all sensation in her left hand. “Crap. I’ve got to restrain this son of a bitch, but my cuffs…I must’ve dropped them upstairs when he tranq’d me. Let me just…okay.”
She turned, saw the ropes looped through the side holes in the table. “Here we go. Okay.”
“You don’t look so good,” Ariel commented. “I probably look a whole lot worse, but you don’t look so good.”
“Been putting in a lot of hours looking for you, Ariel.” Eve fought the knots on the rope, cursing under her breath as her fingers felt as agile as limp soy dogs.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. Bloody buggering hell! Was this son of a bitch a Youth Guide or something?”
“I always thought they were little psychos.”
Unsteady fingers slick with sweat, Eve tugged and dragged. “Almost got this bitch. Just hold on.”