“I’ll bring you some heavier blankets when I come back too. It gets cold in here at night.”
Lucy said nothing. He closed the door and she retrieved the aspirin, downing four of them and drinking the first bottle of water in its entirety. She would rather not drink too much and avoid the bathroom trip with them, but she felt like the desert inside and she’d have to go to the toilet sooner or later anyway. She sat on the mattress picking at the ham and cheese sandwich he had brought and eating the chips, finding that she was surprisingly hungry for someone who felt scared shitless.
Did this have something to do with Ryan? Was it because of something he’d stirred up with his meddling in her neighbors’ business or perhaps related to one of his cases? Had he confronted the man from the photo he showed her and that had something to do with it? It would help if she had some idea of what these guys were after, but she didn’t.
True to his word, the man returned for her trash, leaving only the water and the rest of the aspirin. He brought a thick wool blanket to add to the bed, along with a clean pair of sheets. They weren’t new, but they were freshly laundered. They smelled like lavender and she wondered who had washed them. Had he taken them from his wife? His mother? Stolen them from someone in a laundromat? It was weird where your mind went when you were so afraid.
“Bathroom then?”
“Yes, please,” she said.
“Come on out,” he told her.
As she approached him, she noticed something she’d been too scared to even process earlier. He had no smell. He was human. Were they all human? It was good. She might just be an Omega, but she could take down a handful of male humans. They all stood on the opposite side of the room talking in a little huddle while he walked her to the bathroom. The place looked like some sort of old manufacturing plant, but it appeared to have been closed for some time.
He let her in the bathroom and she looked around for anything that might help her escape, but there was nothing. No mirror to break, no strings or pins. There was only a toilet and a sink. Thankfully, he at least let her close the door while she went, waiting outside while she did her business. She washed her hands and took a final look around. There was nothing here.
Stepping back out of the room, she walked ahead of him, her heart racing. She was scared. What if they had a gun or some other weapon? Would she be able to get to them before they got a round off? Wolves could withstand a gunshot better than humans thanks to their advanced healing powers, but if they hit the right spot, she could still go down.
She went back inside the closet and lay down on the mattress, the man closing the door behind her. With the wool blanket on top of the thinner one, she was at least warm now. She needed to rest and let the drugs finish leaving her system. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed, but she still had enough sedatives in her system that she managed to drift off and get some rest.
When she awoke, she could hear the men outside talking again. They were closer this time. She didn’t know how long she’d been out, but she felt a bit more alert, a bit stronger. Sucking in her breath, she exhaled slowly, taking a few more of the aspirins and drinking some water. Then, she stripped off her clothes and knocked on the door before calling out.
“Can someone let me out? I need to go to the bathroom again,” she called out.
“Be right there,” one of them called out.
She didn’t wait. She couldn’t afford to let them get the upper hand. Instead, she shifted and stood there, waiting with her wolf teeth bared. She heard the clicking of the locks and the door began to open. She didn’t wait to see what was on the other side. Instead, she flew at it, pouncing on a man.
They were on her almost immediately, all but the one on the floor shifting and surrounding her. They were all considerably larger than her and she didn’t stand a chance against them, but she might be small and fast enough to get past them if she made a run for it. Before she could bolt for it, she felt something sharp hit her hindquarters and then everything was black again.CHAPTER FOURTEENRyan
It seemed like Monday would never end. The east side was absolute chaos with random shootings that seemed not to be as random as they were made to look like and an absurd number of ODs being called in. There was a war going on there, with drug dealers fighting it out for control.