35
South of Albany, Upstate New York
She'd given him a hard time. Of course she had. He hadn't expected anything less.
Waving a gun in his face and trying to get him out of the car.
He smiled at the recollection and then made the final turn towards his destination.
"If you kill me, you'll never know where she is. If you arrest me, you'll never know where she is. Believe me. It would give me considerable satisfaction to know that she's starving to death while you try and find her. I hear it's a horrible way to die."
Of course that had lowered her defenses just long enough for him to launch a surprise attack and stab a needle into her arm.
She'd been out cold in twenty seconds. Long enough for him to dump her in the back seat, turn off the lights in the car and drape a blanket over her unconscious body.
Because he was so intimately familiar with her tolerance, he'd given her a stronger dosage than Alexis. He knew she wouldn't bother him for the next few hours and that's what he'd needed.
It would give him time to drive back north, switch the car and head back to the house. He'd dump her in the basement with the others and then finally get some rest.
It had been a long, eventful day but all in all, everything had gone as smoothly as he could have hoped for.
He had no idea whether Beckett had brought back-up to the first meeting spot or not, even though he'd warned her against it. But he wouldn't put it past her. Bitch still liked to think she could outsmart him. So he had to make sure, and forcing her to listen to Lily's screams would do just that. In a pinch, he giggled to himself.
When it came to smarts, he'd always be a few notches above Kate Beckett. She didn't exactly have an MD after her name.
It made him gleefully excited for what was to come.
He had a lot of failures in the past six years, but tomorrow he wouldn't fail.
The world would soon see what a monster Kate Beckett was. Even that useless, smitten husband of hers would never be able to forgive her for what she was about to do.
Earlier
It was late and Lily, terrified as she was, was drifting off to sleep.
Alexis was sitting on the bed, kept awake by her growling stomach and cradling her half-asleep sister in arms when the door of the basement suddenly swung open and Neek stormed back inside, waving a gun at her.
"Get up!"
Alexis did as he ordered and Lily twitched in her arms. Startled.
He bolted towards her and yanked a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket. Then in one swift motion, he grabbed Alexis and pushed her over to that strange aquarium-like structure in the middle of the room. A metal ring jutted out from one corner and that's what he handcuffed her to. Lily sat on the bed, watching it all. Wide awake again.
"It's okay," Alexis mouthed after seeing the terror written all over her sister's face.
Neek then left the room and came back inside, carrying an unconscious Kate Beckett in his arms.
Oh shit, Alexis thought.
"Mom," Lily cried out for her but Neek dumped her on the bed unceremoniously. She'd have landed on top of Lily, had her sister not moved out of the way in the nick of time. Then he pulled another pair of handcuffs from his jacket pocket and handcuffed one of Beckett's wrists to an iron rung on the bedframe.
Pulling his gun back out, he returned to undo Alexis's cuffs. Obviously he'd only cared about containing her while he had his hands full with Beckett. Didn't think she was a threat otherwise.
"We're hungry," Alexis blurted out. "Please. We need food and water."
The declaration seemed to amuse him. "You can drink the water from the sink."
"What about food?"
"You're funny, Alexis Castle," he pointed out with a grin. It jarred her to hear his voice without the heavy accent. "I dragged in your step-mama like a sack of potatoes but the only thing you care about is, well, actual potatoes."
Alexis's cheeks flushed red. "What do you want with us?"
"How about I tell you what I don't want? I don't want to feed you. Believe me, food will be the least of your concerns soon."
The words sent a chill up her spine. If it weren't for the gun he was pointing at her, she might have lunged at him.
He left the room as quickly as he'd entered it, and for a second Alexis regretted not doing it anyway. It felt as though she had nothing to lose.
Not true, she thought, thinking of the life growing inside her. Of Lily sitting on the bed trying to rouse her mother.
Alexis rushed over to her.
"Lex, what's wrong with Mom?"
Alexis put a hand on Beckett's neck and felt for a pulse, before pinching her pale cheek. Then she gave it a slap. Gentle at first and then a little harder.
"Stop!" Lily cried out.
"I'm not hurting her, promise. Just trying to wake her up." There was no response from Beckett.
"Why isn't she waking up?"
"I think he drugged her, same as he did to you and me."
Lily looked at her strangely. "He drugged me?"
"Remember when you first woke up and felt funny?"
"Yeah."
"That's why."
"So why isn't she waking up like I did?"
"She will. We have to give her a little time. She needs to sleep it off, like we did."
"Then she'll wake up?"
"I'm sure she will."
"Okay." Armed with that knowledge, Lily relaxed. "Lex?"
"Yes?"
"I need to pee."
"Oh…" So did she, come to think of it. Alexis had already discovered there was no toilet in the room. "Okay. Bucket."
Lily made a face. "Gross."
"I'll dump it in the sink. Pretend we're camping. Like last summer, remember?" There was no toilet paper either, but she'd take pleasure in ripping off another piece of the bed linen.
They did what they had to do and then Lily slipped back into bed next to her mother, burrowing underneath the only blanket to ward off the damp chill of the room.
"You come too," Lily told her sister. Although it looked sturdy enough, Alexis wasn't sure the bed could support all three of them, and tired and cold and hungry as she was, she didn't want to be asleep the next time Neek entered the room.
"Later."
She'd occupy herself by trying to think of a way to get out. To find something, anything, she could use as a weapon because his earlier words still chilled her.
"Believe me, food will be the least of your concerns soon."
She was only cold and starving right now, not injured or worse. Now was the time to find a way out.
She wished Beckett would wake up. Even if she'd been handcuffed, Alexis suspected she might have some knowledge of this place. Of what he wanted.
It suddenly occurred to her that Beckett might have been here before. She thought about that possibility as she paced around the room, running her hands along every inch of space to feel for something sharp that she could dislodge and use as a weapon.
Alexis had been in this cold, windowless space less than a day, and she was ready to lose her mind. She couldn't imagine anyone surviving here for weeks. Months.
She kept searching, frustrated when at least an hour had to have passed, and she had nothing in her hands to show for it, even after making a concerted effort to yank out the handle of the sink and the odd one sticking out of the strange aquarium-like structure. Neither of them had budged.
Alexis didn't want to think about what that was for. Didn't want her mind going there.
Eventually she gave up and sat down against the wall close to the bed, exhausted and wanting to sob. It couldn't end like this. Not when there were four lives depending on her to find a way out.
"Mom?"
Lily's voice startled her. Alexis thought her sister had fallen asleep a long while ago. She pushed herself back up and went to her.
"Lily?" Beckett's groggy voice made it obvious that this is what had woken Lily up. Her mother waking up as well.
"Mom?" Lily was sitting up now, her hands on her mother's cheeks. "Wake up."
"Hands," Beckett tried to grab Lily's hands, wincing when she tried to use the arm that was handcuffed to the bed. "Your fingers…"
Beckett opened her eyes, looking confusing as she grabbed one of her daughter's hands. Then the other. "Your fingers…Lily? You're okay?"
"My fingers are okay," Lily reassured her. Puzzled by the strange question.
But Beckett insisted on running her own fingers along each one of Lily's, as if to make sure they were still attached. Alexis didn't understand it but she didn't say a word until Beckett breathed a sigh of relief and closed her eyes again, still holding on to one of Lily's hands.
"He didn't hurt you."
"He pinched me really hard. I screamed."
"Oh baby…come here." Beckett kissed her daughter's hand. Grateful. "It was a set-up. Of course it was."
"Kate?" Alexis saw that she was trying to sit up, but it was hard with one hand cuffed to the bed frame. So she helped her up and so did Lily. "Take it easy."
Beckett's face was pale. Greyish even. She was probably as dizzy, nauseated and disoriented as Alexis remembered being when she first woke up here. She hoped that Beckett wouldn't throw up. Especially since she couldn't move from the bed.
Kate's pupils focused and it was as though she recognized her for the first time since regaining consciousness. "Alexis?"
"Yeah, it's me."
"What are you doing here?"
"I don't know. I was hoping you might."
"Are you…" Kate stared at her. At her stomach. "Are you okay?"
Alexis tightened her lips. She knew. Kate knew about the baby and it bothered her even though it should have been the least of her concerns. Of course her father would have spilled to Beckett. Of course.
"We- I, yes, I'm fine." Alexis told her. "What about you? Did he hurt you?"
Kate shook her head. "No." She pressed a hand to her forehead as if struggling to remember, just as Alexis had when she first woke up. "He…he used Lily to lure me to a meeting spot, I'm not exactly sure what happened afterwards."
"How did he contact you?"
Beckett blinked hard, slowly coming out of her drug induced stupor. "He texted me."
"Texted?"
"He's been contacting me since I got back."
"What?"
"He's the man who took me."
"Oh my God…" Alexis moved a hand to her mouth. Stunned. "The man who held you captive for six years now took us. Why?"
Beckett gave Alexis a blank stare. "I honestly don't know."
"Do you remember being here? In this house?"
She shook her head. Frustrated and apologetic. "No. It's possible that I was but I still can't remember anything,"
"It's okay," Alexis told her. "But we need to get out of here."
"Yes," Beckett pushed herself up against the iron rods of the bedframe, while Lily did the same, wide awake and leaning against her now. Beckett used her free arm to pull her close. "We do. Were you and Lily brought here together?"
"No. I was the first one, then he brought in Lily."
"He was alone?"
"Yes. As far I know. He came into the room alone and I haven't seen or heard anyone else in the house."
Alexis could see Beckett's mind working. Trying to come up with a plan of attack. "He's outnumbered then."
"Except, he's armed and you're handcuffed." It wasn't three against one. It was her and a nine-year old up against a strong, fit man with a gun.
"You're free," Kate pointed out. "You have to catch him off guard, as soon as he enters. Find something to attack him with. Then you run, you take Lily…and you run! You get out. It's your only chance."
Alexis looked at her incredulously. She was so hungry and so tired. "What do you think I've been doing all night? I've been trying all night to get us a weapon."
Beckett's eyes darted around the room. "What about the pipe from the sink? Get it loose somehow. If you hit him on the head with it-"
"I tried!"
"Then try harder!"
"Mom," Lily looked distraught. "Alexis. Don't fight please."
Desperation was written all over Beckett's face. "I'm sorry. I'm not fighting, but-" She turned back to Alexis. "You have to catch him fast and unaware. If you don't, if he comes in here and you don't catch him as soon as that door opens, if you give him the chance to point a gun at you, it's too-"
She couldn't finish when the door suddenly swung open, hard and fast.
Neek entered the room with a gun already pointed at Alexis. "Look at that. Everyone's awake. I thought I'd have to wake you up, Kate, given what I gave you. But I should've known. You've developed such a tolerance to everything I've pumped into you these last six years, haven't you?"
Kate pulled Lily closer and Alexis swallowed hard.
She missed her chance of a surprise attack.
It was already too late.
Castle Residence, NYC
"Mr. Castle? Mr. Castle?"
He felt a hand on his shoulder and jump-startled into wakefulness, unsure of where he was for second. He was on the sofa in the living room of the loft. Several men and one woman were in the room.
FBI agents.
Had he fallen asleep?
"Mr. Castle," the female agent's voice was low and gentle. "I promised to wake you if we found anything."
"Found anything?" His brain was still waking up and now he noticed that Alexis's fiancé, Leon, was draped over the armrest on the other side of the sofa he was sitting on, drooling onto it. They must have both fallen asleep sitting up in the early morning hours.
Castle noticed that there was a nearly full mug of coffee on the coffee table in from of him and that his neck was painfully stiff.
He stood up and massaged it, unsuccessfully trying to soothe the kinks. How could he have fallen asleep knowing his daughters, and probably Kate too, were in the hands of a mad man? What kind of a father did that? "I, uh- how long have I been out?"
"Not long. Couple of hours."
"I'm sorry-"
"Mr. Castle," the young blonde agent chided him. "You're running on fumes. The best thing you could do for your daughters was to get some rest."
He turned to the window, where the sun was beaming in. Had he slept through the morning? The pain in his neck magnified with the movement and Castle was glad. He deserved it. How could he have fallen asleep? "You said you found something?"
"Thanks to the tracker app in your daughter's phone we traced her movements yesterday."
"And?" He was so glad he'd forced her to install that as soon as she started helping him out at the PI agency.
"She came here yesterday morning, correct?"
"Yes." Guilt hit him along with the reminder of that awkward visit. Of course he'd already told the FBI about it, minus the details. If only he'd gotten up earlier. He could have intervened. Could have kept her at the loft and ironed things out between his daughter and Beckett and now he might never-
"Did she say anything to you before she left?"
"No. We didn't talk. She came here before I woke up. She spoke to Beckett and then left."
"So your ex-wife was here yesterday morning? You didn't mention that to us, Mr. Castle."
"What does it matter?" Castle shot back. "I told you she was with me at the PI office. I gave you the burner phone and you saw the texts she sent me. I've come clean about everything. I don't know where she is now."
"I know, Mr. Castle. It's just that – every little bit helps. You know that. Until a few hours ago we focused exclusively on Lily's disappearance. Now we believe they are linked."
"So you tracked Alexis's phone?"
"She went to a coffee shop in Chelsea after she left here and we've located her phone there."
"You have?"
"It was in the lost-and-found drawer at the store, so we've pulled camera footage from inside the coffee shop and outside it. We've verified that she left with Nikolai Nemovsky. That the same man who took Lily also took Alexis."
"You verified what we already suspected and what do you mean, she left with him?"
"She knows him, right, Mr. Castle? He could have given her any number of reasons to leave the restaurant with him. The videocam footage shows she left the restaurant willingly. We suspect he drugged her, or otherwise subdued her, once he was alone with her."
Castle shuddered at the thought, grateful that Leon was sleeping and couldn't hear.
"We turned his apartment in the Bronx upside down last night. It's more like a hotel room than a home. The man's good at being invisible. We found very little personal info, but thanks to a parking registration form we got from the building landlord we now have a license plate. It's for a green Impala. One of the cars we saw on a streetcam by Lily's school shortly after she was taken was a green Impala. The plate number's already been forwarded to every police force in the state. If he went through a toll road, we'll know and we'll find him."
Castle exhaled. It was the most hopeful piece of news they'd gotten so far.
"We're working 'round the clock on this, Mr. Castle. We'll get him. Sooner rather than later."
"It has to be sooner."
"If this is the same man that took your wife, keep in mind that he kept her for six years. Kept her alive."
"Right," he exhaled, not the least bit comforted by that reminder. He knew that this was the end game. He was certain that Nieman had no plans to imprison his entire family for another six years. He'd taken both his daughters for an implicit reason, a big showdown, to tell the world whatever he'd failed to do over the last six years.
"What about Nieman?" he asked the agent.
The FBI agent frowned. "We know who took your daughters. The theory that Dr. Nicholas Nieman and Nikolai Nemovsky are the same person is just that, a theory. The last thing we want to do at this stage is waste our precious resources pursuing an uncertain lead. We know Nemovsky is behind this and we're going to find him."
Castle stuffed his shirt back into his jeans. "If you find Nieman, you'll find Nemovsky. I'd stake my life on it," he told the FBI agent. "If Nieman owns property near New York City that's where you might find Kate and my daughters." Now tell me who decides how to use our precious resources so I can convince them of it too."
South of Albany, New York
Neek pointed the gun straight at Alexis's head. "Get over there," he ordered her. "Stand next to the tank."
Beckett could see Alexis's hesitation. She was still thinking of attacking, in spite of the gun. "Do as he says, Alexis," Kate yelled out to her, wanting to squash that thought before it took root. With herself still handcuffed to the bed, Alexis wouldn't stand a chance. The only way she would have stood a chance was in a surprise attack.
Thankfully, Alexis listened. She followed Neek's order and he promptly yanked out a second set of cuffs, this time chaining her to the giant tank. There was a steel, hook-like handle that stuck out on one side of it, different from the lever-like handle on the opposite side.
Beckett was holding Lily close and she could feel her daughter's heart racing after Neek finished cuffing Alexis to the tank. She dusted a kiss onto the top of her head. "The second you get a chance, you run," she whispered into her ear. "Run and don't look back. Got it?"
"Mom…" she whimpered.
"Go, to Alexis!" Beckett ordered her as Neek walked back to the bed. So what if she was handcuffed to the bed and so what if he had a gun, Beckett would fight him. She wasn't helpless. But she wanted Lily out of the way when it happened because she wouldn't risk any stray bullets hitting her daughter. If she could just get his gun, if she could shoot him then Lily could run…
Lily clung to her, unwilling to let go, but Beckett wouldn't have it and gave her a push. "Go baby, go to your sister."
Lily did as she was told but Neek intercepted Lily's mad dash towards Alexis. He grabbed her and tossed her over his shoulders as though she was weightless.
Beckett clenched her fists. I'm going to kill you.
She watched in shock as Neek lifted her up over his head and put her in the glass tank. He threw her over so carelessly that she nearly went face first, but Lily curled into a ball just before she hit the floor, ending up on her side instead before bouncing back onto her feet.
Good girl.
Her daughter was dwarfed by the giant container. If she stretched her arms she could probably reach the top and possibly climb out, but it would require a lot of upper body strength. As if Neek was reading her mind and thinking the same thing, he slammed its glass top shut. Even if Lily could reach the top, Beckett doubted she had the strength to lift up the heavy glass cover.
"What are you doing?" Beckett demanded.
To answer her question, Neek yanked the handle that stuck out on the side of the contraption and suddenly water gushed into the tank from a pipe that connected it to the wall.
Judging from Lily's panicked reaction, it was cold. Alexis jumped back too, instinctively, even though she couldn't move far from the tank.
"Let's see how good of a swimmer she really is."
Beckett watched in shock as the water kept pouring into the tank. It came in fast, and at a high volume. It wouldn't take that long to fill the tank at that rate. Lily would drown if it was filled to the top.
But then Neek let go of the handle and the water flow stopped.
"You're insane," Beckett whispered in stunned disbelief.
"If you think that's crazy, wait until you see what you're going to do."
With that he turned around and left the room, leaving the door open.
Lily stood in a puddle of water, her socks soaked and she shivered. "It's cold," she told them, her voice muffled through the glass.
"Jump up and down," Alexis told her, try to push up the cover.
Beckett didn't waste a moment, she twisted herself around so that she could pull at the bar on the bed that she was handcuffed to. It had to come off somehow. It was just a bed frame.
She yanked at it so hard that the cuffs cut into her wrist, sending a trickle of blood down her arm. She didn't care. Beckett yanked harder hoping something might budge.
"Beckett!" Alexis called out. "Watch out! Behind you."
Neek was back in the room, carrying a small black canvas bag in one hand and his gun in the other. "Spare me the theatrics, Kate. Unless you bite off your hand you're not getting loose. I'm not that stupid."
Beckett watched him set down the canvas bag and open it up. There were five syringes inside and a giant butcher knife.
Oh no…no, no, no.
She'd scream and kick and claw his eyes out with her one free hand before she let him stick any one of those into her.
"What do you want?" she asked him again. "If you want to torment me, then do whatever you want to me, but let them go."
"What do I want?" he repeated her question. "It's very simple. I want the world to see you for the monster that you are. My sister was vilified for her desires, and you, you were glorified for it. Do you think that's fair, Kate?"
"Kelly was your sister, wasn't she? Kelly Nieman."
"She was. And you killed her with your bare hands." He wasn't so calm anymore. Anger and rage seethed behind his words.
"She's a psycho like you. She tried to cut up my face."
His nostrils flared and Beckett was pleased to see how easily she'd touched his buttons. How easily that thin veneer of controlled calm came undone.
"You're a police officer, trained to subdue a person. Not to kill."
"When that person is actively trying to kill you, the only way to subdue them is to end their life."
"Stabbed twenty-four times, with a scalpel. That's what the autopsy report said. You went at her as though she was a pincushion." Neek, no, not Neek. Nicholas Nieman. Castle had been right. If she somehow, by some miracle, got out of this alive, Beckett would gladly listen to him tell her "I told you so" for the rest of her life.
"She tried to kill me by cutting up my face. She was a psychopath who got turned on by helping a serial killer. One who likely would have kept killing if we hadn't stopped him. If you're waiting for me to apologize for ending her life you can wait a long time."
The muscles in his neck tightened and for a second Beckett thought he might strike her. It made her regret her bravado. Pushing his buttons to make him emotional, to make him more likely to make a mistake, was one thing. Pushing his buttons to her own detriment was just stupid.
"I don't need your apologies, Kate. All I need is for the world to see you for who you truly are."
"A monster."
"That's right," he nodded, solemn and serious. "A monster. Just like me and my sister,"
"You're trying to make me kill. It's what you've been trying to do for six years isn't it?"
"I won't have to try very hard today. I have a feeling you'll be a very willing accomplice."
Beckett glanced at the bag full of syringes. "Is that why you brought a bag full of drugs? Because I'm so willing?"
He chuckled. "We all need a shot of courage for something like this. Do you really think Richard Castle will care whether I drugged you or not after he finds out you killed one of his daughters?"
Terror tightened her chest and she could feel the tug of an old scar. Alexis followed the exchange with wide-eyed disbelief. "You're insane. I'd never hurt them. You'll have to kill me first."
"I have no intentions of killing you, Kate. I want you to live with what you've done."
He inched towards the bed and as soon as he was close enough, she stretched towards him and propelled all her body weight into one of her to give him a kick. It sent him stumbling backwards, but there wasn't force to topple him over.
"Is that how it's gonna be? You really want me to hurt you?"
"Kate, don't," Alexis pleaded from across the room.
"Come near me and I'll hurt you," Beckett promised him. She was not going to make this easy for him.
"If you want to fight me, you're going to lose." He walked over to the canvas bag and pulled out a syringe and stuck it in the pocket of the jeans jacket he was wearing. Then he approached the bed and Beckett was ready to send a kick straight into his face. He shifted sideways and she missed his chin by less than an inch. The momentary reprieve gave him enough time to move in on her and use the butt of his gun to hit her cheek so hard that stars suddenly danced at the edges of her vision.
Alexis gasped.
Pain flared through her entire head, but she didn't lose consciousness. Beckett blinked hard to stay alert and let it pass. But she was shell-shocked by the unexpectedly brutal attack just long enough for him to pull out the syringe and plunge it into her arm.
Fuck.
Nieman stepped back. "There. It was inevitable. But you always have to make things hard for yourself, don't you?"
Beckett tried to slow down her breathing, tried to slow down the efficiency of whatever he'd given her, but that was pointless too. It was already starting to blanket the pain that radiated through her face and replace it with something else. Something warm and wonderful. Something she'd craved so desperately for weeks now.
She was floating.
"You missed it, haven't you?"
Beckett stared up at him, no longer wanting to hurt him. Instead, she was oddly grateful that he'd given what she'd needed for weeks. What she hadn't been able to name or describe or obtain.
"Withdrawal must've been hell after six years. I'm a little surprised that it didn't kill you. But I should stop being surprised by you. I should have learned my lesson by now."
Beckett eyed him with relief, her lips curling into the slightest of smiles, as the last throb of pain left her face and she floated higher.
Light and free for the first time in a long time.
Castle Residence, NYC
"We found the car!" An FBI agent announced it just as Castle handed his mother a cup of peppermint tea. He'd never seen Martha truly lose her composure before. Not when Alexis had been kidnapped, not when Beckett had been shot, or even at any one of his four weddings.
But she looked out of sorts now. She wore very little make-up and her hair was hastily tied back with a red, glittery band. Even the sweater she wore sat awkwardly on her thin shoulders.
The prospect of losing both her granddaughters was too much even for Martha Rodgers.
Castle made sure she had a firm grip on the mug of tea before he turned to the FBI agent. "Where?"
"A state trooper found it in a Walmart parking lot off the 87, near West Point."
"What does that mean, found it in a parking lot?"
"Could mean several things. That he's taken them nearby. That he switched cars. Forensics is there now, dusting the car for prints to see if one or both of your daughters were in it. We're looking at cameras in the area to see if we can spot him entering or leaving."
"So you found his car but no trace of him, or Lily, Alexis or Kate?"
"Mr. Castle, we're making progress. We're building a trail that will hopefully lead us to his doorstep. Finding the car, it's big. We have reasons to be hopeful here."
You didn't find the car, he wanted to tell them. A state trooper found it by accident.
"What about Nieman, have you compiled a list of properties he might have owned? Places he's lived?"
The agent hesitated, long enough to let Castle know the answer was no. "We're working on it."
Castle wasn't sure whether to believe him. Whether he wasn't being handled. "I see." He exhaled and ran a hand through his hair, still messy from his earlier sofa nap. "Excuse me."
This was exactly why he'd asked Ryan to run a search on Nieman for him.
He reached for his cellphone and prayed that Kevin had better news than what he'd received from the FBI.
South of Albany, NYC
Handcuffed to the tank, Alexis watched it all unfold. The way Neek slapped Beckett so hard that her head almost bounced off the rail she was handcuffed to. She watched the effects that the contents of the first syringe had on Beckett and kept an eye on Lily inside the tank, shivering in the ankle-deep puddle of cold water.
Her sister had taken off her wet socks, and that gesture only angered Neek and prompted him to press on the handle next to the tank and send in a fresh wave of water, until it was high enough that it went just past her ankles and began to soak her school dress pants.
Several long minutes went by before he pulled out a second syringe from his bag and injected its contents into Beckett's arm with no resistance from her this time.
The third followed almost immediately and by the time he pulled the fourth syringe out, Alexis watched horrified as that one made Beckett's eyes roll to the back of her head, knocking her out completely.
Lily watched it too and it made her cry. But then her sister suddenly banged her hands against the glass and yelled at Neek. It made Alexis jump.
"Stop hurting her!"
Alexis shook her head at Lily. Don't. Don't make him angrier.
But it was too late, Neek already rushed back to the tank and pulled the handle again. "You want to go swimming already? Do you?"
More water gushed into the container and suddenly it came up to Lily's knees.
"I'll swim if you stop," Lily pleaded with him.
Oh Lily, no.
Neek smiled at the absurdity of her plea. "Don't worry, you'll swim soon enough, you little water rat."
There was another seemingly endless wait that they endured mostly in silence until Neek finally injected Beckett with the fifth and final syringe. It brought her back to consciousness so quickly that it made Alexis gasp.
Beckett bolted upright as soon as she was awake. Her eyes wide and confused, her pupils the size of dinner plates. She gasped for air at first and then doubled over before sitting back up and staring at Neek.
"Hey," he snapped his fingers in front of her eyes. "Welcome back." His voice was softer and gentler now. "How you feeling?"
She hesitated before nodding. "Good."
"I thought so."
"Lily…" Beckett stared straight ahead, past Neek.
"That's right. Your daughter."
Neek was talking to her like a child. A hypnotised, heavily medicated child.
It made Alexis shiver.
"Lily…" Beckett repeated. Mesmerised but neither shocked nor angry.
"Mom!" Lily cried out in response.
"You love her, don't you?" Neek asked Beckett.
"Yes." The answer came easily.
"You'd do anything for her, wouldn't you?"
"Yes."
"I know you would. She's your flesh and blood. Your everything."
Beckett nodded.
"What if I told you that Alexis over there was trying to hurt her? To kill her?"
"No!" Alexis shot back. "It's not true. You know it's not. I'd never hurt Lily!"
"Hey!" Neek harshly cupped Beckett's jaw in his hand and turned her head towards him. "You believe me, don't you? You know I only tell you the truth. You know that you can't listen to those other voices. They want to confuse you. They want to hurt Lily."
Alexis caught the slightest nod coming from Beckett.
"If I tell you something, you'll do it. Because I'm the only one who knows what's real and what's good for you."
"No!" Alexis yelled out again. "He's lying! He drugged you! He put Lily in that tank!"
Neek turned around and raised his gun towards her. For a split-second Alexis thought it was all over. That he was going to pull the trigger. But all she got was a nasty glare.
She'd touched a nerve and that gave her hope. That maybe Beckett, in spite of drugs, wasn't as brainwashed and compliant as Neek assumed.
"Don't listen to the voice," he told her once more, still holding on to her jaw. "Only my voice is real."
"Yes…I know," she breathed out.
He pulled the knife from the canvas bag and handed it to her.
"Use the knife to cut your arm," he told her. "You need to do it. For Lily."
Alexis was shocked to see that Beckett didn't hesitate. She took the knife from him and used it to cut into her other arm, the one that was still handcuffed to the bed. A thin bloody line began near her wrist and ran down to her elbow.
"Mom, stop!" Lily yelled from the tank.
Oh God… Alexis put a hand to her mouth to muffle a gasp. They were screwed.
Neek grabbed the arm that was holding the knife, "That's enough. I don't want you passing out on me again."
Beckett stopped cutting herself. She held on to the knife while Lily cried inside the tank and drops of blood fell on the white bedsheet.
"I'm going to undo the handcuffs, Kate," Neek told Beckett. "And you're going to stay here until I need you to save Lily. Do you understand?"
Beckett seemed oblivious to the giant cut on her arm, as well as the smaller one on her wrist that was still bleeding too. If this was all an act to convince Neek to set her free, then Alexis was convinced she was the best actress in the world.
He uncuffed her and got up to move towards the tank, the gun still in his hand as he yanked on the handle, sending a fresh wave of water inside the container. It took Lily by surprise and nearly made her topple over before she regained her balance.
The water rushed in quickly and it was up past Lily's knees in no time.
Meanwhile Beckett was still as a statue, sitting on the bed watching it all unfold while her arm continued to bleed.
Alexis wanted Beckett to make it stop. To do something now that she was free. But Neek was still holding the gun and Alexis balked at what he might do if Beckett turned on him, so she watched in stunned silence as the water kept pouring into the tank, with Lily occasionally crying out for both her mother and sister.
Eventually the water came to Lily's shoulders.
"You want it to stop, don't you?" Neek asked Beckett.
It was as though she didn't understand the question at first. "Stop?"
"You don't want her to drown do you?"
"No!" Beckett shook her head vehemently.
"You can make it stop."
"Me?"
"Yes, you." He turned to Alexis. "She's the reason that Lily's going to drown. You need to stop her. Kill her."
"Stop her." Beckett finally got up, unsteady on her feet to start. Her right hand clutched the knife and her other hand was covered in blood.
Jesus.
Lily was treading water now. Only her head and neck were above the water, sandwiched between it and the glass cover of the tank.
"You have to hurry," Neek told her.
"I'm not doing this," Alexis stammered. "Look at him, Kate. He's holding the handle. He's the one that's going this!"
"Do you want to save your daughter, Kate?"
"Yes…" Beckett looked anguished. "I will."
"It'll stop when you kill Alexis. You know it will. Because you know I'm telling you the truth."
"Mom! Don't!" Lily's arms splashed in the tank, her neck underwater too.
"You don't have much time, Kate!"
Beckett stared at Alexis, full of rage. "How could you?"
"I'm not…" Alexis was crying now too. Terrified of what would happen next. "I'd never hurt her. Never."
Beckett stepped closer until she was right across from Alexis. Close enough to strike her with the knife. "You're lying. Stop being such a goddamned bitch. Stop hurting me and Lily. Don't make me do this to you."
"Please, Kate. You don't want to do this. You love my Dad too much…" She was bawling now, unashamed of it, because Kate was already raising the knife, ready to plunge it into her.
Alexis closed her eyes.
I'm sorry, baby, I'm so sorry.
Lily's chin was underwater and she struggled to keep treading water. To breathe, in the ever-tightening space between the water and the glass roof. Occasionally trying to push up into the glass with her hands in a futile effort to raise it.
"What the hell are you waiting for?" Neek's voice thundered through the room. "If you don't kill her, Lily will die!"
Alexis braced herself for the searing pain of the knife's impact, but it never came.
She opened her eyes to see Beckett turn around and face Neek instead.
Neek had one hand on the lever and a gun pointed at Beckett with the other. The shock was written all over his face. "What the hell-"
Beckett didn't hesitate anymore.
She lunged at him full-force.
And Neek fired.