Chapter Five
Given the tactics, Aiden shouldn't have been surprised it was DedSec on the line. His voice came out gravelly and weak. "Why are you helping me?"
"Because we can."
Bullshit. "I know you well enough to know you don't do anything for free."
"This isn't the DedSec you know."
Aiden squinted his brow. "What the hell does that mean?" Aiden leaned against the wall, his legs shaking underneath him.
"Get out. Then we'll talk."
Like he'd refuse. Hobbling toward the door, Aiden peered around the frame. There was no one in sight. "I hope you have a plan," he said, coughing loudly and then wheezing as he tried to fill his lungs. Fighting was out of the question. He didn't even know if he had the strength to make it to the front door.
"We'll get you out. Just do as we say."
"Fine."
DedSec directed Aiden across the building and down a flight of stairs. On the next level down, there was raucous shouting and cheering. Keeping to the shadows, Aiden edged along the outer wall of the level, the plentiful boxes and clutter concealing him from view. He rounded a corner and found where the noise was coming from—a gathering of Viceroys was watching a football game, all crowded around a TV, their backs turned to Aiden.
Just as Aiden drew level with them, the game cut to commercial and one of the Viceroys turned, looking directly at Aiden. It was Wes, the guy who had stopped Eddy that day. His heart pounding, Aiden ducked down into cover, clutching his broken ribs as they crunched inside him. He could have sworn Wes had seen him, but no one was raising the alarm. Poking around the corner, Aiden risked a quick glance. Wes was now passing around beers to everyone, raising his own in a messy toast to the Bears. Taking the opportunity, Aiden slid to the next bank of cover and kept going.
The further Aiden descended, the harder it was for him to avoid the Viceroys milling around. DedSec had stepped in many times, turning out lights or making phones ring as distractions. Once he got down to the fourth floor, the building was packed with sleeping bodies and night owls alike.
"What now?" Aiden whispered, peering at the myriad of people blocking his path.
"Just wait," came the reply.
Within a few seconds, Aiden heard shouting coming from outside. He was along the wall facing the inner courtyard and Aiden pressed his face to a nearby window. There was an orange, flickering glow illuminating the snow on the ground between the buildings. Craning his neck around, Aiden saw flames licking up the northernmost building, to his right. A window blew out further down that building, more flames emerging into the night.
"How did you manage that?" Aiden asked, mildly impressed.
"Be thankful they never bothered bringing the wiring up to code in these old buildings."
To Aiden's left, another gout of fire burst from a hole in the walls. Then Aiden heard glass breaking above him, the smell of smoke filling the air. Everyone was stirring, running for the exit in a panic. Aiden let them pass, tucked away in a corner behind a tall stack of pallets.
He could feel the temperature rising. "It'd be nice to know what the plan is here!" he whispered urgently.
"Don't worry, the fire is above you. You have time."
After a few minutes, smoke was billowing from the two buildings to either side of Aiden's and starting to muddle the air in his own. Sirens blared in the distance and grew louder and louder. Aiden watched as three firetrucks pulled up, firefighters spilling from them and rolling out hoses.
"If your plan was to have firefighters rescue me, then I need to tell you that a hospital is not a great place for me to go. They'll report my injuries to the police who are just as corrupt as the men here."
DedSec ignored his sarcasm. "Get to the east side of the building. Get onto the fire escape."
"That won't get me down from here."
"Just do it."
Summoning his strength, Aiden did as he was told, using the chaos and DedSec's guidance to pick his way across the floor. He'd wanted to argue. The fire escapes were spotty at best and didn't go down past the fourth floor. They'd been cut off as a security measure implemented by the Viceroys. Surely DedSec had to know that? Regardless, Aiden didn't have the will and certainly not the breath to argue, the smoke causing him to cough relentlessly.
Sliding open a window on the far side, Aiden crawled out onto the fire escape, the extra maneuvering torment to his muscles. He clunked onto the metal and huffed through the pain, pulling himself back to his feet with a clenched jaw.
"Now what?" he grunted, hunching not just against the pain, but the frigid temperatures and biting wind as well.
This side of the building was quiet, everyone having exited out the front and the fire concentrated that way.
"Look down."
Not trusting his own balance, Aiden held onto the railing and peered downward. A fire truck backed into view, its lights dark. The ladder on top unfurled itself on the approach and aimed for Aiden, extending upward. Gaining speed, the engine crashed through the chain link fencing and concrete barriers that lined the property, coming to a stop so that the top of the ladder was right below Aiden.
Aiden needed no more prodding. The promise of freedom drew him onward and he descended the ladder. He breathed past the pain and exhaustion, the fresh air giving Aiden new life in a way he hadn't known he'd needed. It took him longer than it normally would have, but Aiden made it to the bottom and he picked his way down the engine. Walking past the cab, Aiden noticed there was no one in the driver's seat. A second later, the engine started rolling away as Aiden limped away from Rossi-Fremont.
Turning a corner and tasting the free air, Aiden pressed the phone back to his ear. "Thank you." What else could he say?
"Get somewhere safe. We'll be in touch."
Then the line went dead.
Aiden stashed his phone in his pocket and focused on next steps. DedSec had echoed exactly what Aiden was thinking. He might be out of Rossi-Fremont, but he wasn't safe yet. He needed a car.
The first car Aiden found was some beat-up hatchback, but Aiden didn't care. In fact, the more inconspicuous, the better. He hacked the lock and climbed inside, grateful to be off his feet. He hadn't realized how exhausted he was until he sat down. Weariness weighed him down like the car were sitting on him instead.
Wedging his eyes open, Aiden drove off, heading north. He'd cross the bridge to the east and double back. He'd meant what he'd said earlier. He couldn't go to a hospital. Him being in custody would kill him faster than his injuries would. He'd head for the Bunker and do what he could.
Snow began to fall as he crossed the bridge, the lazily drifting flakes mirroring Aiden's mind. He was having a hard time thinking, his instincts driving the car for him in its place.
Though he knew he had limited physical capacity remaining, Aiden set a sensible pace. He didn't need to draw any unnecessary attention to himself. Frankly, he was lucky he hadn't been pulled over for drunk driving because he could feel himself weaving all over the road. He could barely keep his eyes open. He'd almost crashed a few times when he'd nodded off. Fortunately, he'd snapped awake and swerved back into his lane before ploughing into a snowbank or an oncoming car.
The drive seemed endless, Aiden fighting himself the entire way, wanting nothing more than to give in and let darkness soothe the anguish. His mind was beyond comprehension anymore. A kaleidoscope of lights flashed by and soon Aiden was crossing another bridge.
He kept driving; passed buildings that diminished in size the further he went.
The next thing Aiden knew, he was crunching through snow, arms wrapped around himself. Despite the warmth from the car, Aiden was freezing. Like his body couldn't retain any heat, only absorb it as it came. His breath stuttered out in front of him, his legs scarcely able to hold him up. He staggered his way down the street he found himself on, aiming for a little blue house that was vaguely familiar.
His mind was too far gone to comprehend why.
Jay sat entranced by the breaking news that was playing on her TV, the headline reading: Long-suspected gang hideout, Rossi-Fremont, catches fire.
The reporter was standing across the street, the frame above her filled with flames. A crowd of people watched while firefighters did their best to tame the inferno. These were replays of the initial broadcast over an hour before. They cut back to the live feed showing one of the buildings left charred while they worked to put out the other two.
Jay looked at the headline again. She had pieced together what that place was in her dealings with gang violence at the clinic. Even if they didn't know why, everyone who lived or worked in that area knew to stay clear of Rossi-Fremont.
Jay's eyes wandered. As distracting as the news report had been, her thoughts kept coming back to Aiden.
Neither her texts nor calls would go through to him and it had been days since he had sent that text. She had to have tried a hundred times to reach him.
She hadn't heard anything from DedSec either. Not that she expected to. They seemed pretty clear about not wanting to speak with her again.
Which left her with nothing but questions and unease. There was nothing she could do. She couldn't get ahold of Aiden. DedSec either wouldn't contact her or hadn't found anything. The not knowing was killing her.
Jay muted the TV. It's not like she had been listening anyway.
Just then, footsteps crunched outside.
Jay's heart pounded. It was late. There shouldn't be anyone outside her house.
The footsteps grew closer.
Fear taking over, Jay jumped to her feet and swiftly padded to the bedroom. She'd kept a baseball bat next to her bed the last couple of years and she snatched it up.
The crunching stopped as she made it back to the living room, readying the bat over her shoulder.
A knock rapped through the silent house.
"Who's there?" she snapped sharply, slowly approaching the front door, bat raising even higher.
"'S'Aiden," a voice slurred.
It was quiet, but unmistakably his and Jay ran to the door, dropping the bat so suddenly that it bounced a few times before settling. Her heart leapt while her brain wondered why he was slurring, the adrenaline from both reactions making her hands shake so badly that she had trouble undoing the chain.
She swung the door wide and there he was, leaning on the frame, his form hidden in shadow.
He took a step forward and Jay's elation shriveled to dread, all the blood draining from her face.
He was hurt, so badly that his knees buckled after that single step and Jay had to catch him under the arm and prop him up. "Aiden!" Jay cried in horror. He was barely lucid, his eyes rolling up into his swollen and bruised face. Dried blood spattered up his neck and dribbled down from a broken nose. "Oh, God," she mumbled to herself as she swung Aiden around.
Kicking the door shut and the coffee table out of the way, Jay helped Aiden toward the couch and slumped him onto it. The action set him coughing—a horrible, rumbling, wet cough that could only be pneumonia. When that subsided, shivers racked his body.
He was in a very bad way. And that wasn't even considering his injuries and illnesses. His face was gaunt, his eyes sunken in, his hair and growing beard matted with dirt and blood. Something had happened to Aiden that Jay couldn't begin to fathom.
Parking herself on the coffee table next to Aiden, Jay felt for his pulse. It was steady, but weak. Hand trailing upward, Jay tested Aiden's forehead. The skin was clammy and, despite the swelling there, freezing.
Aiden's eyes wandered listlessly, his labored breathing shallow. Jay pulled his face toward hers.
"Aiden? Aiden, look at me," she commanded, her medical prowess asserting itself over her panic.
His eyes lollygagged their way up to hers and held recognition for the briefest moment, his mouth trying to form a word. But the breath let out wordlessly and his eyes fluttered back into his head, his body wilting into the cushions.
Heart shattering, Jay caught a glimpse of skin over Aiden's stomach where his sweater had pulled up. Noting the discoloration, she reached for the hem of his sweater and pulled it up as far as the bulletproof vest would allow.
There was nothing but welts and bruises.
Pulling at the thread of Aiden's injuries, Jay set about undressing him. He could be more seriously injured than she realized. It took some maneuvering, but Jay managed to pull off Aiden's coat, his bulletproof vest, and finally his sweater, the sight she beheld leaving her appalled.
Aiden's body was a marbling of purple, green, and yellow, the bruises smothering every inch of his skin. And he was so thin, his skin clinging to his ribs tighter than it should have. From the nasty bruising and the awkward angle at which they sat, Jay could tell a few of those ribs were broken. There were charred spots too, dotting his frame. The closest thing Jay had seen to that was an electrical burn on a man who had accidentally stuck his hand into a live socket. To top things off, there was a good-sized gash right of his navel, dried blood pooled inside it and leading down to his pants.
Afraid she might miss something vital, Jay rolled Aiden up onto his side so she could check his back. It was much the same except for several burn marks over his left shoulder. Jay tilted him further to better see them.
They were tallies. Two sets of five. And they weren't just burns. They looked more like cauterized wounds, the marks getting angrier the further they went along.
Setting Aiden back down, Jay's eyes drifted to his wrists. They were chewed up, rubbed raw. Deep bruises banded around them like manacles.
Someone had done this to Aiden. Maliciously.
It hit her then that it had been ten days since she had last seen him, ten tallies on his back. Something else hit her as well—smoke. As Jay leaned closer over Aiden, the scent of smoke grew stronger, like he'd been near a campfire or—
Jay swiveled to the TV, which was still playing on mute, the blaze over Rossi-Fremont filling the screen.
Had he been in that fire? Her eyes caught the words, long-suspected gang hideout, once again. Had Aiden been there for ten days?
Snapping back to Aiden, realization bowled into Jay like a wrecking ball. Her hand flung over her mouth and tears sprung to her eyes.
Aiden had been trapped there. Tortured there.
Jay had seen some bad things working in the clinic and her hospital job before that, but nothing this… cruel.
Urgently, Jay searched for her phone. It had gone flying when she'd shoved the table aside. She spotted it under the TV and raced around the table to grab it, locking the door on her way.
Dialing 9-1-1, Jay was half an inch from pressing the call button when she hesitated, her finger hovering over the screen.
Aiden couldn't go to a hospital.
Jay had worked that job. She knew what would happen. Injuries like this would be reported to the police. She could say he'd been in a car wreck, but she'd been on the other end of those lies too. They'd see straight through it.
If she was the one who tipped the police on to Aiden, if he ended up in jail, then what?
He'd be alive, the voice in her head answered. Which was more than he could hope for without immediate medical care. But maybe there was another way.
She could do it. She could help Aiden and keep him safe. Even though that thought scared her to death. What if he didn't make it? What if keeping him here was the worst thing for him?
She couldn't think like that. Aiden had obviously come here for a reason. He could have dialed 9-1-1 himself, but he hadn't.
Jay settled her mind, repeating the steps that had helped her through the crazy hospital days: Assess the patient. Formulate a plan. Execute.
This was just another patient.
Taking a steadying breath and blinking back tears, Jay strode back over to Aiden, stripping him down. Assess the patient. She had to know if he had any more critical injuries.
Sadly, his lower half hadn't been spared. The bruising, welts, and electrical burns continued. There were some severe burns to Aiden's right calf that Jay couldn't wrap her brain around and some broken toes to round out the wounds. Though Aiden's condition was dire, there was nothing that would require surgery to fix.
Formulate a plan. If Jay could stabilize him, hydrate him, nourish him, and start him on antibiotics, he could make it. From there, Aiden would have to heal himself.
Execute.
Jay was going to need supplies. A lot of them. She gathered up her purse and keys, throwing on a heavy coat and snow boots. She'd get what she needed from the clinic. She'd write the supplies off as an emergency house call. Occasionally she would do those to run fluids or re-bandage wounds. She might get in trouble for the amount she was going to take, but that was a problem for another day.
Swaddling Aiden in as many blankets as she could find, Jay gave his hand an encouraging squeeze before heading out the front door.
It was the longest drive of Jay's life. Bile rose in her throat at the thought that she would find Aiden dead when she got back. There was no traffic so Jay made good time, but it had still taken almost two hours. The roads had gotten slick as well. Jay had had to keep telling herself to slow down. It wouldn't have helped Aiden if she had crashed.
When she opened her door to find Aiden still breathing, Jay's pounding heart and racing mind eased.
She immediately set about hooking Aiden up to a couple of IV's, one meant more for general hydration and the other a complete IV nutrition. Once that was done, Jay gave Aiden a shot of antibiotics, cleaned him up, and bandaged his wounds as best she could, though she couldn't do anything for the overall beaten state of his body.
After that, there was nothing more she could do but wait.
And worry.
All through the night, Jay sat and watched Aiden pull in rattling breath after rattling breath, praying that he would make it. That she hadn't cost Aiden his life by not taking him to a hospital. Tears streamed down her cheeks in fear, stress, horror, and anger.
She'd either just saved Aiden. Or killed him.
Aiden pulled himself from the darkness, his eyes flittering open. He couldn't make out much, the world streaking past him every time his gaze shifted. But then his eyes fell to someone next to him. Someone familiar. It took his foggy brain a while to dredge up who it was.
"Jay?" he breathed out weakly.
Her form blurred in front of him, her voice booming in his ears. "Aiden!" Her face grew larger. Large enough that he could see the concern written all over it.
This didn't make any sense. Aiden had gone to the Bunker. There was no way Jay could be here.
"What…. how are you here?" he slurred.
Distantly, Aiden felt her grab his hand. The sensation was odd. Like his hand were miles away.
Her eyes swam into view. "Aiden, you're at my place. You came here, remember?"
Aiden wasn't capable of processing much of that statement. The only thing he knew was he had to leave. Now.
He made to get up off of whatever he was lying on, but he barely managed to move. His body was weak, his actions uncoordinated. All he ended up doing was throwing his arm over to roll his body onto its side. "I can't…be here. I can't. I have to go…" he muttered incoherently. A trickle of pain wormed its way past Aiden's muddled consciousness at his movements, though he didn't have the wherewithal to pay it any mind. He kept going, pushing against the hands trying to keep him in place.
"Aiden, stop. You need to rest."
Barely noticing Jay's protests, Aiden kept trying to get up.
"Aiden, stop! You're going to hurt yourself."
He swung his legs around and crashed to the floor, the jolt forcing a cough from him. Once the first one came through, Aiden couldn't stop. He could barely draw a breath past the grumbling coughs that thundered through his chest. And with each one, agony ripped through him, reverberating through his body in a pulsing wave of torment.
Aiden ground his eyes shut and clenched his jaw around the coughing, clutching at his sides as if that would lessen the pain. He could hear shuffling around him and Jay's faint voice calling out to him.
"Don't worry, Aiden. This'll help. Just hold on."
But Aiden didn't have to wait any longer. With one more gasp for air, his body ended his suffering for him and everything went black.
Jay was shaken.
With great effort, she'd replaced Aiden on the couch, setting aside the syringe of sedative she'd been about to give him before he'd passed out.
On the one hand, Aiden had woken up and that was a good sign. On the other hand, Aiden had hardly been coherent and he'd been in such pain that she could barely stand to see it.
She forced herself to take a few deep breaths, settling back into the chair next to Aiden after she checked that his catheter and lines were still good. She wanted to give him more pain meds, but she was already giving him the maximum dosage. If his body were in better shape, she might consider bending the prescribed rules, but she doubted his organs could handle it. She'd rather sedate him than send him into kidney failure.
So she waited with the sedative ready. He couldn't afford to do what he had just done again. His body couldn't handle it.
Her fears came to naught because Aiden remained unconscious the rest of the day and well into the next, Jay calling in sick to work for the second day in a row. She most certainly was not going to leave him. She had plenty of sick and vacation days to burn. Not that she would have cared if she didn't.
Aiden needed her and that was the end of it.
Though, Jay could feel herself fading. She hadn't slept in two days. Hadn't eaten much either, she'd been so worried. There were dark circles under her red-rimmed eyes and her body was exhausted.
Blinking back the tiredness, Jay stood and paced the room to wake herself up. She wouldn't let herself rest until Aiden was out of the woods.
Then she heard a sound that sent life coursing through her.
"Jay."
Aiden opened his eyes and immediately shut them again, flinching from the bright light diffusing through the curtains. Carefully, he cracked them open, squinting while his eyes adjusted. Dull pain throbbed through him, but he felt better than he had since his ordeal began. Eyes trailing down to his right, Aiden realized why. He was hooked up to an IV, the bags hanging from a nail in the wall above him.
He was lying on a yellow sofa, a matching armchair above him to the left, and a low wooden coffee table caddywhompus in front of that, the glass in its middle scratched and chipped. Past the thoroughfare leading from the front door was a TV, set up on a long, narrow table that spanned almost the entire wall. There was a large framed picture on the floor behind the entertainment center, leaning up against and facing the wall.
That same wall turned a corner to a hallway that led away from Aiden. He couldn't see far down it from his position. To the left of that hallway started a kitchen, judging by the countertop and cabinets, though Aiden couldn't make much more out without turning his head.
Unfortunately, Aiden knew where he was. This was Jay's house. He'd thought his memory of being here had been a fever dream. Had thought he'd wake up on the floor of the Bunker.
Instead, Jay was there, pacing up and down in front of the TV, unaware that Aiden had woken. Guilt pinged through him at putting her through this. Why had he come here? Why did this keep happening?
He called out to her, his voice much weaker than he was expecting. "Jay."
She swiveled on a dime, rushing over to him, seating herself on the coffee table. "Aiden?" she said guardedly, searching his eyes.
Aiden attempted to sit up, but was stopped by the agony flaring through his core.
A switch flipped in Jay and she rounded on Aiden, snatching up a syringe from somewhere above Aiden's head. "Hey!" she shot at him angrily, brandishing the syringe. "If you try to leave again, I will sedate you. I'm not joking, so don't even try it."
A chuckle bubbled from Aiden's lips at her spunk, though it soon turned into a small cough and Aiden cringed at the pain it caused. Jay came towards him, but Aiden waved her off. "I'm fine," he coughed out. Fighting down another wave, Aiden mastered himself, breathless from the pain and exertion.
Jay pulled his attention back. "Aiden? Are you with me?"
He tilted his head towards her, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. "Yeah."
She didn't seem to believe him, her eyes intent on him. "Do you know where you are?"
Eyebrows twitching upward, Aiden answered, "Your place. Apparently."
Jay's gaze softened a bit. "You thought you were someplace else." It wasn't a question.
"Thought I was at the—at my place. I don't know how I ended up here." Aiden's eyes drifted, searching his memory. "I don't remember much after…" Aiden trailed off, his eyes flitting back to Jay.
She knelt on the floor next to him, bringing her face to his level. "Just tell me. Please. I want to know the truth. No matter what it is. I've already imagined it a thousand times anyway."
Aiden ground his teeth. He didn't want to lie to her anymore. He was so tired of it. But telling her the truth came with its own risks.
Using every bit of strength he had, Aiden pulled himself into a sitting position, ready for the pain this time. He clenched his teeth, grunting through it. Jay lurched toward him. To help him or to stop him, he couldn't tell. It didn't matter either way. He was already sitting up, her hovering hands slowly lowering to her sides.
Aiden lifted a few fingers to hold her back. It was about the only thing he could manage. "I'm ok," he said, breathing hard.
The blankets covering him had fallen away, revealing his bandaged torso. A pleasant chill crept over his skin.
Jay hesitated for a moment, then settled into the armchair next to Aiden, waiting expectantly.
It took Aiden a minute to get going. He wasn't used to sharing. Not with Jay. Not about this.
"I was… taken."
"Taken? But..why?"
"I've made a lot of enemies, Jay. Enemies who would jump at the chance to beat the shit out of me." He paused. "Or worse."
Jay's face visibly paled and she practically shivered at his words. "To what end? They were just keeping you to… to…" Her eyes roved down to Aiden's bandages and back up. "To torture you?" The last two words came out as a horrified whisper.
Lending as much levity into his voice as he could, Aiden replied, "I'm sure they would have, but no. They wanted to sell me on. Trade me to a higher bidder for more stake in the game."
"Trade you? To who?"
"Someone who has an even bigger grudge against me."
"Why?"
Aiden hesitated. "I killed his father."
There was confliction on Jay's face. Aiden could guess why. He knew she didn't think of him as a killer. She didn't know who he was. Not really.
Now she did.
She struggled for words, her internal conflict playing out in her eyes. Aiden let her process the information silently. He didn't qualify his statement. Couldn't bring himself to no matter how much he qualified it to himself.
Aiden was a killer. Plain and simple.
Finally, she spoke. "Who was he?"
"Dermot 'Lucky' Quinn."
Jay squinted in confusion. She obviously hadn't been expecting that answer. "The millionaire business guy? What does he have to do with anything?"
"He was the leader of the South Club," Aiden explained and Jay's eyes widened. At least she knew who the South Club was. Grinding his teeth, Aiden added, "His order led to Lena's death." His eyes blackened. "So I made sure he found his."
Jay recoiled from the hatred in Aiden's voice. It took her a moment to respond. "So… so this Quinn, his son is…"
"The new leader of the South Club. And he's been after me ever since. The Viceroys know it. They were using me as a bargaining chip to get back into good graces with the Club. They used to work hand in hand with them until I took down a portion of their trafficking ring a few years back."
The look of consternation and, Aiden hated to admit it, fear on Jay's face transformed into awe. "I remember that happening. They saved dozens of women that day. That was you?"
Aiden flicked his eyebrows in affirmation. He didn't feel right praising himself over it. Especially since saving those women had merely been an aftereffect of what he'd truly been there for. Even now, he was trying to shut down that trafficking ring more as a punishment to the South Club than anything else. "Been trying to take down the rest of it ever since. But the South Club keeps getting away with it." He shook his head in frustration. "The operation's too big. And any information I find just leads to more questions than answers. I thought I had a decent lead on it." He looked to Jay, angry at his failure. "I was right there. But the Viceroys got to me first."
Realization dawned in Jay's eyes. "That's why you left that night."
"Yeah."
"And you've been there ever since?"
Aiden didn't need to say anything to confirm it.
Jay's eyes fell in horror. "How did you get out?"
"A group called DedSec broke me out. You might have seen their propaganda around town."
"DedSec got you out?" Jay inquired eagerly.
Sensing her tone and wondering at her eagerness, Aiden replied, "Yeah, why?"
"I, I think I might have sent them."
"What?" It was Aiden's turn to recoil in shock. "H—how? How did you even contact them?" Even Aiden didn't have a way to contact them directly now that Clara was gone.
"I didn't, really. I went searching for them online and they contacted me, messaged me on my laptop. I think they figured out my connection to you. I doubt they would have responded otherwise."
"Shit," Aiden growled in dismay.
"I don't see what the problem is."
Aiden's blood rose. "They're dangerous, Jay. Maybe not in the same way as the Viceroys or the South Club, but they are not people you get involved with lightly."
"I didn't have a choice!" Jay yelled incredulously. "You were in trouble and I had to do something. DedSec was the only link I could find to the Vigilante." She stared intensely at Aiden, her voice lowering, but no less powerful. "You were in trouble, Aiden. Or, at least, I thought you were." She gestured to him. "And clearly I was right!"
Her tone quelled Aiden's ire. He took a deep breath. He had no right to get onto her about this. He held his hands up conciliatorily. "I know. I just… didn't want you involved in all this." Then his mind caught on something else. "Hang on. How did you know I was in trouble?"
"It was that text you sent me."
"What text?"
"The one where you 'broke up with me.' You called me June. You don't call me June. Ever."
Aiden had forgotten about that. He'd only been half-conscious when Eddy had sent it.
Jay went on. "That plus the fact that I hadn't seen or heard from you in a week had me worried." She shook her head. "At the time, I thought maybe I was overreacting." She met Aiden's eyes. "I'm glad I did."
Aiden matched her gaze. "You saved my life, Jay. I wouldn't have made it out of there without DedSec. And I don't think I would have survived without you taking care of me either."
She sobered at his admission. "Are… are you ok?"
Aiden knew she didn't mean his injuries. It took him a second to provide an answer because even he didn't know what it was. "I… I'm just glad to be out of there." He fumbled for words, his eyes falling. "I didn't think… I didn't think I ever would be."
Jay reached out and grasped his hand. Aiden squeezed it in return.
Their conversation had felt like a weight lifting off of Aiden's shoulders. He didn't have to hide anymore. Didn't have to lie. That alone was enough for Aiden in this moment.
Despite the liberation in his heart, exhaustion washed over Aiden's body. His eyelids felt like lead weights and he struggled to keep them up.
Sensing his shift in energy, Jay helped Aiden to lie back down before he crashed forward, telling him that he needed to rest, that they could talk more when he was ready.
Aiden was too tired to resist and fell asleep instantly.
Jay sat watching Aiden sleep, her heart finally at ease.
Though still incredibly weak, Aiden had woken up, truly woken up, for the first time since he had staggered through her door.
And he had shared his story. She had thought he was going to refuse at first. She supposed it was so second nature for him to lie that it was probably harder to tell the truth. She felt like she was seeing Aiden for the first time.
If Jay was honest with herself, part of that scared her. There were things about Aiden that she hadn't considered, what being the Vigilante really meant. She'd have to sort through those truths, those feelings soon enough. But right now, Jay was too tired to think much on it, was too relieved to care.
Aiden awoke later that night looking the best he had yet. With her help, he stood and shakily made it to the bathroom, Jay eternally grateful that she had laundered his clothes and pulled his jeans back on while he had still been unconscious.
He ate a little that night before weariness overtook him again. Before he had fallen asleep, he had told Jay that she needed rest too, teasing her and saying that she looked nearly as bad as he did. She knew he was right, but she didn't want to leave him so she curled up in the armchair and practically passed out, her body regretting that decision in the morning.
He spent most of the next day awake, his appetite returning in earnest. He even managed the walk down the hallway to the bathroom by himself, albeit slowly and fumblingly. Jay was amazed at his recovery, his resilience.
When nighttime came again, Aiden insisted that he was fine, that Jay didn't have to stay with him. He must have seen the sheer exhaustion in her eyes. She couldn't deny him this time.
Setting a new IV bag for the night (though Aiden claimed he didn't need it anymore), Jay left him and crawled into her own bed.
She fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
Aiden awoke with a start. Everything was dark. A quick glance over to the microwave in the kitchen told him it was almost three in the morning.
His hearted pounded in his chest. Something was wrong, though he couldn't place what.
Then he heard it—crunching footsteps outside the front door. They vanished and were replaced by a quiet squeaking noise. Lockpicks.
Shit.
Aiden sprung upright, swallowing down the protests from his body. He grabbed the back of the couch to steady himself as his head swam. He battled to bring the world back into focus, to balance himself. By the time he did, the handle on the door was turning.
Ripping the catheter from his arm, Aiden pushed himself up and rushed past the coffee table, the silenced muzzle of a pistol coming into view as the door opened. The door stopped on the chain, the intruder hesitating at it. Aiden had just made it behind the door when it came crashing inward, blowing through the chain.
Aiden kicked the door back into the arms that were emerging. The intruder gave a shocked grunt and accidentally shot into the couch where Aiden had been lying moments before. Having bounced off the intruder, the door came back at Aiden and he kicked it again. This time, it knocked the gun from the man's hands. The gun skittered over the coffee table, landing beside the couch.
Latching onto the man's arm, Aiden yanked him around the door and swung him toward the wall, the man smashing into the TV. The jolt went straight back to Aiden who recoiled from it, doubling over at the pain, coughs racking his lungs. The intruder took the opportunity to duck out of Aiden's grip and sent a rising left hook into Aiden's head. Aiden rolled with the punch, but it left him exposed and the other man grabbed Aiden by the arm and the back of the neck and did what Aiden had just done to him.
He swung him around into the wall past the TV and kept Aiden pinned there. He twisted Aiden's arm up behind his back, wrenching a cry from Aiden.
Jay came running into the hall then and stopped short when she beheld the two of them.
The intruder noticed her arrival too. He made for her, but Aiden threw his head back into his face. Enraged, the man shifted his focus back to Aiden, using his forearm to mash Aiden's head into the wall repeatedly, the drywall caving underneath Aiden's skull with each blow. A river of blood flowed down the side of Aiden's face.
Thoroughly dazed, Aiden hardly noticed when the pressure on him lessened. Jay was suddenly next to them, her arm plunging for the man's neck. The man cried out and batted her arm away, kicking into her middle to send her flying backwards. She crashed into the hallway wall behind her, pictures shattering and clattering to the ground from the impact.
Jay picked herself up as the intruder pulled the partially depressed syringe from his neck and made for her.
Aiden slid down the wall when the man let go of him and turned his eyes to Jay. "Jay, run!" Aiden barked, striving to pull himself back to his feet.
Miraculously, she obeyed and went hurtling down the hallway. The intruder went after her, but Aiden grabbed his foot on his way past and tripped him up. Sent sprawling, with Aiden attached to his boot, the man flipped onto his back and kicked out at Aiden. Aiden had to let go to not take a boot to the face and the man scrambled to his feet, aiming for the door that had slammed shut at the end of the hallway.
Aiden followed right behind.
He shoved himself upright and sprinted down the corridor, slamming into the man as he reached for the door handle. They struggled against each other, exchanging blows as they fought for control. With a growl, Aiden eventually managed to toss the intruder unceremoniously back down the hallway. He rolled and shot back to his feet, though he swayed a bit as he did so.
Aiden's eyes drifted past the man to the syringe on the floor. The sedative.
They locked eyes again, facing off from each other in the corridor, Aiden ready to guard that door with his life. Aiden was surprised when the man retreated, edging around the corner to the kitchen. Not wanting to let him out of his sight, Aiden kept pace with him, favoring his ribs as he hobbled down the hallway.
A steak knife came swinging toward his head the second he turned the corner.
Aiden flung himself backward out of its way, the knife so close he could feel a gust of air brush his cheek. Though his movements were blundering, the intruder kept attacking, slashing at Aiden with a glaze in his eyes, forcing Aiden to retreat. Aiden kept dodging until he saw an opening and swept to the side, grabbing the hand holding the knife with both of his. He fought against the assailant, trying to pry the knife from his hands.
His efforts were fruitless.
The intruder reached around and nailed Aiden in the ribs with his fist. When Aiden shrunk away from the hit, coughing uncontrollably, the man headbutted Aiden and kicked out at the inside of his knee. Aiden was too weak to withstand it and went down to one knee. Flipping the knife to his left hand, the man swiveled around and stabbed toward Aiden, aiming for the back of his neck. But Aiden had begun to rise and the knife speared through his shoulder instead, slicing through the bandage covering Archie's tallies, the tip poking out the front with a splatter of blood.
Light exploded behind Aiden's eyes, blinding him temporarily. He howled, his shoulder on fire.
Knowing what a terrible position he was in, Aiden scrabbled for the man behind him, needing to get some sort of hold on him if he was to regain any control over this situation.
The man avoided Aiden's searching grasp and withdrew the knife, preparing to stab Aiden again. Stretching back, Aiden snagged ahold of the intruder's jacket collar and flipped him forward over himself. The man went flying, but he, in turn, had grabbed onto Aiden and brought Aiden down with him, forcing them both to crash to the floor opposite each other, the breath knocked from both of them.
The two of them sprawled on the floor, trying to recover.
When Aiden could draw in a breath, he spotted the gun on the floor to his left. The intruder must have read what Aiden was going for because as Aiden moved to get it, the knife came slamming down into the back of his right hand, piercing through it and lodging into the hardwood underneath.
Aiden roared, his fingers clawing into the wood. He was pinned in place.
Surging to his feet, the other man hopped over Aiden and ran around the coffee table to get to the gun. Thinking quickly, Aiden brought his knees up around the coffee table and kicked the gun under the couch, which was low enough that the man wouldn't be able to reach under it. There was a dull thud as the gun collided with the back wall.
The intruder growled in frustration, fury plain on his face. His fist closed around the IV line and he yanked it from the bag, returning to Aiden with it. Aiden turned back to the knife in his hand, knowing he had to get free of it if he was going to stand a chance. He didn't get any further than that thought before the IV line cinched tight around his neck and a knee in his back shoved him down against it.
The knife temporarily forgotten, Aiden fought instead to sneak his fingers underneath the line constricting his throat, scratching his neck badly in his attempts.
The line only tightened.
Struggling for breath, Aiden fought to break the line, to bash against the hands holding him, to throw his attacker off of his back. Anything. But he was too weak. His attacker held firm and soon Aiden's vision tunneled, what strength there was in his limbs draining. Through darkening eyes, Aiden glimpsed Jay approaching from the hallway, her arms raising. The intruder either couldn't see her or was too intent on Aiden to notice. She sprang forward, slinging a baseball bat toward the man's face.
It crunched into his nose, his cheekbones.
Wailing, the man released Aiden and flew backward to his feet, clutching his face.
Aiden gasped in a breath, pulling the line from his throat. Jay stood over him, holding the bat up threateningly. Sputtering, Aiden twisted to track the man, who was standing near the window now, blood pouring from his face.
Despite his obvious pain, rage shone through in the man's eyes and he locked in on Jay, lurched for her. Before he could take a step, Aiden kicked the coffee table and sent it careening into the man's shins. The table took his feet out from under him and he pitched forward, crashing his face into the edge of the table on his way down. When he hit the floor, blood gushed from a crack in his forehead and he laid unmoving.
Aiden waited a moment, not wanting to turn away until he was sure the man wouldn't rise. Jay was tense next to him, apparently of the same mind. But the man wasn't moving, wasn't breathing.
He was dead.
The threat to Jay over for now, Aiden groaned back to his own predicament, his breath still coming in coughs and wheezes. Aiden reached out to the knife, his hand shaking with the agony slicing through his shoulder.
Jay's feet pivoted next to Aiden. "Let me," she called out to him, setting down the bat and kneeling across from him.
Aiden gratefully let his hand drop. Jay reached for the knife, her own hands shaking just as bad. Her cheeks were wet with tears that streamed down from the fear and shock in her eyes. Aiden watched her. Watched her fight to keep her emotions in check. He hated that he had brought this on her.
Then she gripped the knife and Aiden clenched his eyes shut, even that little movement searing through his hand. Jay pulled on the knife, but it wasn't enough to dislodge it. It merely rocked into Aiden's hand.
Swearing, Aiden cried out in pain.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry," Jay apologized quickly. She looked back to the knife. "It's stuck between the boards. I'm going to have to work it free."
Through gritted teeth, Aiden ground out, "Just keep going."
Giving a terse nod, Jay moved again, wriggling the knife free. By the time she extricated it from the floor and it slid free of Aiden's hand, he had clawed the wood so badly with what fingernails he had remaining that he had carved gouges into it.
Finally able to sit up, Aiden leaned back against the armchair, clutching his left arm to his chest, his right hand left limp on the floor. He took a moment to steady himself, though he knew he didn't have long.
They had to get out of here. Now.
He was an idiot for thinking, even for a second, that they would be safe here. They had Jay's name. Or part of it anyway. How could he not have thought of that? It was only a matter of time before they figured out who Jay was, where she lived. Which begged the question—were they here for him or Jay?
He supposed the answer didn't matter much right now. He had to get both of them back to the Bunker. It was the only place they would be safe.
A panicked voice ripped Aiden back to reality.
"Who was that?" There were new tears sliding down Jay's face as she threw the knife onto the counter behind her. "Was that one of them? One of the… the Viceroys?"
Aiden swung his arm up and grasped the chair, using that just as much as his legs to pull himself to his feet. "No. Fixer." His words were clipped, the pain too much to eke out any more than a few syllables at a time. It wasn't the Viceroy's style, one man acting alone. Aiden only prayed that he truly was alone.
They had to get moving.
Once he was up, Aiden leaned against the chair and bumbled his way to the dining table beyond it where a jumble of medical supplies was splayed out. Selecting a roll of gauze, Aiden set about wrapping his shoulder and his hand. "They must have put out a new contract on me. They'd be furious I escaped." It was more likely the contract was on Jay, actually, but Aiden didn't want to scare her. His heart was already withering at the thought of a contract being out on her. She didn't need to share in that dismay.
By the time Aiden had finished with his hand, blood had already soaked through the bandage on his shoulder. He glanced around then headed for a kitchen drawer, the end one most likely to have what he needed. After rummaging through one, Aiden moved to another, Jay piping in behind him.
"What are you looking for?"
Without looking up, Aiden answered, "Duct tape. Need more pressure."
Jay pulled open the cupboard under the sink and grabbed a half-used roll sitting on top of a box of trash bags. She walked it over to Aiden and offered to do it for him.
Aiden declined, taking the roll from her instead. Their eyes met and he tried to will some sort of reassurance into his to quell the terror and uncertainty he saw in hers. "Go pack a bag. We have to get out of here. We leave in three minutes." The words came out harsher than he planned them to, but he supposed she needed the impetus. At Jay's desperate look, Aiden added, "It's not safe here anymore."
Still in shock, Jay complied nonetheless and trotted to her room where Aiden could hear her shoving things into a bag.
Meanwhile, Aiden strapped up his shoulder and his hand, grunting at the pain the pressure brought to both. At this point, the adrenaline from the fight was waning. With each revolution of the tape, his arms turned to lead, his balance deteriorating. He nearly fell over when he bit down on the end of the tape and ripped it to finish the piece on his hand.
The world tilted.
No. Aiden couldn't let himself fade. He had to get Jay to safety.
He lunged for the dining table again, his hand sliding around an unused syringe laying there, his arm sending other supplies skittering to the floor. Syringe in hand, Aiden searched the medications on the table, but he couldn't get his other hand to cooperate and all he managed to do was knock over several small bottles.
Aiden heard Jay rush back into the kitchen. Heard her drop something onto the wooden floor and then race toward him. He marked her approach, but couldn't spare any thought to address her. It was taking all his concentration to remain on his feet. He nearly went face-first into the table when one of his legs gave out underneath him, though he managed to catch himself with his bad shoulder. He hissed as lightning shot up his arm.
A hand reached around Aiden and spun him around. Already barely holding himself up, Aiden collapsed to the ground and found himself leaned up against the leg of the table. Jay knelt down, her face rippling into view.
"Aiden, just stop. You can't go anywhere like this."
Breath heaving, Aiden answered, "I just need…epinephrine."
Jay shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea."
Forcing his eyes to steady, Aiden met Jay's gaze. "I need to get you out of here, Jay. But…I don't…" Aiden took a few panting breaths, his eyelids drooping. "I can't, like this." With what remained of his strength, Aiden brought his eyes back to Jay. "Please, help me."
Conflict warred on Jay's face. With a resigned sigh, she gently took the syringe from Aiden's hand and went to the fridge. Plucking out a vial, Jay drew up the epinephrine and brought it back to Aiden, wasting no time in plunging it into his thigh.
Almost instantaneously, Aiden could feel it surging through him, his wits and energy returning. Jay offered a hand and pulled him to his feet. Aiden still wasn't in a good way, but he could move, he could think.
He told Jay to bring her bag, her phone, her laptop, and anything that might have personal information on it. If there were more people coming after her, then they didn't need to gather any more information here. They would find it eventually, Aiden knew, but there was no point in making it easy for them.
At the same time, Aiden threw on the rest of his clothes, double checking that his phone was still tucked away in his coat pocket. Confirming that it was, Aiden had Jay grab her car keys and led her to the door. She didn't balk at the dead body in front of it, though Aiden wasn't surprised given her profession.
He took the keys from her at the door.
"Let me drive," she protested.
"No. If there are more of them, I'll have to lose them." Though Aiden sincerely hoped it wouldn't come to that. The epinephrine was helping, but he felt like he was running at quarter capacity. At best.
Jay seemed to see the wisdom in that and merely nodded, lining up behind him at the door.
Cautiously, Aiden led the way to Jay's car on the street, keeping both eyes and ears open to any signs of danger. Once inside, they sped away, Aiden determining the fastest route to the Bunker.
Aiden was on high alert, feeling like cars were going to come peeling around a corner at any moment. Jay must have sensed his worry because she was whipping her head frantically, stress evident on her face. Aiden's stomach dropped like a stone at the sight of it.
He glanced over to her. "I'm so sorry, Jay. I shouldn't have come here. I don't know why I came here. I'll get you safe. I promise." And he would. It didn't matter what it cost.
Jay didn't answer right away. When she did, it was like she hadn't heard him. "Where are we going?" She had stopped searching their surroundings, but her voice shook as she spoke and she wrung her hands in her lap.
Relieved that Jay had finally spoken, Aiden answered honestly. "A place called the Bunker. It's where I've been staying for the past few years. No one will ever find us there." Though he had to keep darting them back to the road, Aiden looked over and willed Jay to meet his eyes. Eventually she did. "Promise me you won't leave when we get there. No matter what happens, you have to stay inside. There are plenty of supplies to last you a while in there."
He didn't want to say it out loud, but Aiden knew he likely wasn't going to make it. And he knew Jay was likely to go out looking for a way to save him. He couldn't let that happen. She had to stay where it was safe. Once T-bone got back, he could take care of her. Get her out of the city if nothing else.
Whatever happened to Aiden, well, so be it. He wouldn't drag her down with him. Though, in a very real sense, he knew he already had.
Questioning squinted Jay's eyes, replacing the fear that had reigned before. "What are you talking about?"
"Just promise me. Please," Aiden replied urgently.
"Ok. Ok, I promise. I won't leave," Jay agreed hastily, that question still lingering in her eyes.
Aiden ignored it and turned his attention back to the road, the drive lapsing into silence. They crossed the bridge without incident and Aiden let himself relax slightly. If there were more fixers after them, they would be looking near Jay's house. It was unlikely they would find them on the road now.
Which was a good thing for Aiden. He didn't have much strength left. As time passed, his shoulders hunched and his breathing quickened, his hacking cough returning. It was like no matter how much air he pulled into his lungs, it never seemed to satiate his body.
His mind wasn't faring any better. The streetlights blurred into streaks like his eyes had turned into time-lapse cameras. It was getting harder to see, harder to think.
Just hold it together. You've been through worse. It wasn't true this time, but that's what Aiden always told himself.
Next to him, Jay had gone quiet. She stared dazedly at the dashboard in front of her, completely lost inside her own head. Aiden didn't blame her. This had to have been a lot to take in. He wanted to comfort her, but he was too exhausted to form any words.
After an eternity—a blessedly trouble free one—Aiden crossed the final bridge to the Bunker and pulled into one of the shipping containers they had connected to form a garage.
Aiden's memory was coming in flashes now. One moment they were pulling into the darkness of the container and the next, they were in the elevator. Then Aiden found himself descending the stairs inside, Jay a few paces in front of him, looking in awe at the main room.
"Living quarters… are on the left," Aiden panted out, knowing he only had moments to convey some sort of information about how to survive in here. He nearly fell a few times, his bloody grip on the railing the only thing saving him. He couldn't even feel the pain anymore.
By the final step, Aiden didn't have anything left.
"Supplies are…" His words trailed off, his eyes rolling up into his head.
Jay turned at his failing voice.
The last thing Aiden saw was her racing toward him. The next thing he knew, he was falling.
Falling into darkness.
"Aiden!"
Jay lunged for Aiden as he collapsed to his knees and crashed to the floor, only just catching him before his head hit the concrete. She lowered him to the ground and tipped him onto his back.
"No, no, no, come on. Wake up!" she pleaded, tapping the side of Aiden's face.
He didn't respond.
Panic welled up inside Jay. What was she going to do? And how could she have let this happen? She had been so caught up in everything that had happened that she hadn't been paying attention to Aiden. She should have noticed his decline. She should have done something.
What could you have done? a voice in her head asked. Nothing, was the honest answer, but Jay couldn't let herself believe it.
She had just gotten Aiden out of the woods and now he was worse than ever. Not only was it disheartening, but it was terrifying. Jay didn't know if Aiden's body could take it.
Didn't know if her own heart could take it.
Now Jay understood why Aiden had made her promise not to leave—because he knew he wouldn't be able to enforce it himself.
Bastard. Jay was going to make sure he woke up just so she could tell him what an asshole he was.
But those empty threats didn't help Jay any right now. And they certainly didn't help Aiden. Jay didn't know anything about this place, didn't know how she could take care of him.
She took a deep breath. She just had to think.
Aiden had said the living quarters were to the left, had started saying something about supplies. Clearly they were to the right as there were only two avenues off of this main room, but what supplies was he talking about?
Jay wasn't going to wait around to find out.
Leaving Aiden, Jay sprinted off behind her. She descended the stairs leading down another level and found a long corridor beyond that perpendicular to the stairs. There were multiple doors along it. Selecting the left-most one, Jay swung open the door and stood in shock for a moment to find an armory stocked floor to ceiling with every type of weapon imaginable. Guns lined the left wall and sat scattered across tables. Grenades and gadgets were heaped in bins and there was enough ammo to stock a small army. And that was only half of it. Jay didn't even know what the rest of the paraphernalia was let alone what seemed to be some kind of machine being worked on in the back.
Jay wrested herself away from the room. She could ask her questions later once Aiden was better.
The next door hid shelves upon shelves of canned and boxed goods. Aiden had called this place "The Bunker." Jay hadn't realized how apt that name was. It looked like he was ready to survive the apocalypse down here.
Still not finding what she was looking for, Jay went to the third door and pushed it inward. Relief and awe tore through her at what she saw.
The entire room was filled to the brim with medical supplies. Not bandaids and Neosporin, either, but legitimate, hospital-grade stuff.
It rivaled Jay's own clinic.
Shoving down thoughts of what it must have taken to get everything Aiden had amassed down here, Jay zipped around the room looking for what she needed. There was too much to take in. She picked out some IV bags and medications and, just when she thought it couldn't get any better, Jay opened a fridge to find bags upon bags of blood. Most of them were labeled "Aiden," but a few said, "T-bone."
Jay wanted to wonder at who that was, but didn't have the luxury of time. She had to get back to Aiden.
Arms laden with supplies, Jay trekked back up the stairs to Aiden. In the small amount of time he had been laying there, blood had pooled beneath his shoulder. And that wasn't even counting the large quantities of it that had soaked his clothes and caked his skin.
He had lost a lot. Jay prayed it wasn't too much.
Setting down her hoard, Jay put two fingers to Aiden's neck. His pulse was thready. His breathing had deteriorated, too, his chest hardly rising.
"Hold on, Aiden," Jay bade him, dread fluttering inside her. "Just hold on."
Jay stripped off his upper layers of clothes and, with practiced ease, inserted a catheter into both of Aiden's arms and set the IV and blood bags going, wheeling a chair from the nearby desk over to give the bags some height. With that done, Jay knew she needed to close the wound on Aiden's shoulder next. It wasn't exactly in her wheelhouse, but Jay had seen the doctors she'd worked with put in stitches enough times that she felt like she could do a decent enough job. In the end, the stitches weren't pretty, but they got the job done. Jay even threw in a few on Aiden's hand and the gash on his forehead.
Once Aiden was bandaged and cleaned up, Jay strayed to the living quarters to see if she could find a more comfortable place for Aiden. There were two rooms, both spartan in furnishings. There was a cot, a nightstand with a lamp, a dresser, a chair, and a standing clothes rack in each. Jay determined that the one to the left was Aiden's only because she recognized a few of the trench coats on the rack.
Jay stole the cot mattress from the room and brought it back to Aiden, rolling him onto it and using it as a sled to drag him back to the room where she only just managed to heave him onto the cot itself. After that, Jay made a second trip to the medical bay to bring up a heartrate monitor she had noted earlier. She also found an IV stand while she was down there and set that up upon her return as well.
With Aiden set up as well as he could be, Jay settled into a chair next to him and watched his chest slowly rise and fall, listened to the slow, but steady beep of the monitor.
Jay didn't know how it had all come to this. Just a few weeks ago, she had been out on dates with Aiden, laughing like neither of them had a care in the world.
Now, Aiden was barely alive and Jay had so many conflicting feelings swirling inside of her that she somehow couldn't feel any of them. Maybe it was the exhaustion, both emotional and physical. Maybe it was shock. Whatever it was, it left Jay empty, hollow. She found herself unable to process anything. The only thing driving her was keeping Aiden alive. But now that there was nothing left to do except wait, even that fervor was waning.
Jay wished she was crying, wished she was begging Aiden to live, wished she was raging at him for leaving her here alone. But nothing came.
She just sat, staring at him. Utterly alone in a cold and foreign world.
Jay was running, her feet splashing through deep puddles of rain that ceaselessly replenished from the downpour above. Fear brought bile to her throat, though she didn't know why. Then she glanced back over her shoulder and saw a dark figure, silhouetted in the dim light. He moved toward her, only ever at a walk, yet, somehow, she couldn't outpace him as she sprinted for her life down the never-ending alley from which she couldn't escape.
Another glance over her shoulder and the man was even closer. A third glance and he was right behind her. Jay ran harder, her arms and legs pumping, slicing through the rain, her chest heaving. It was more than fear that gripped her. It was sheer and utter terror.
When she turned forward this time, two more dark figures were waiting in front of Jay and she skidded to a stop.
She was trapped.
Heart pounding, Jay backed to the wall as the figures closed in. They surrounded her and, while their faces were nothing but darkness, Jay could still see the lecherous smirks hidden there. They were only a few feet away when everything around them went completely black. Every light and even the moon, it seemed, had been switched off.
Oddly enough, they all paused, Jay included. Her heart fluttered with something like hope. Like she knew everything would be all right.
A few seconds passed and there was nothing but silence. Those seconds turned into ten, then fifteen, and that flutter of hope was dwindling into dread.
The footsteps in front of Jay resumed, the figures' boots squelching over the wet pavement.
This wasn't right.
"Somebody help me," Jay breathed out, fear stealing her voice. Why wasn't anybody coming?
Greedy hands reached out and seized Jay in the darkness and Jay shrieked, panic gripping her. "HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
Heavy bodies pressed themselves against Jay and held her captive, hot breaths oozing over her. A smug, malicious laugh slid into Jay's ear. "Scream all you want, girlie. No one's coming."
Jay's tenuous grasp on hope was torn to shreds at the truth in those words.
No one was coming.
Jay did the only thing she could and fought against the figures. It made no difference. They were too strong, her struggles laughable against them. Their bodies swallowed her whole and Jay screamed as they dragged her down and down and down, her cry mounting the further they went, her terror along with it.
Until that scream became a long, singular tone…
Jay woke with a start.
That tone was echoing around her and as soon as Jay's mind snapped back to reality, she realized in horror what it was.
It was the monitor perched on the table next to Aiden, its display registering an unchanging, green line.
Aiden was flatlining.
Thanks for reading! Things just keep going from bad to worse for Aiden. Will Jay be able to save him? Find out next week and please leave a comment below! Chapter Six will be up next Saturday, 5/6!