Alex knew that, being this close, he could probably kill the man before anyone would be able to react. He gave serious consideration to doing so. The rage within wanted him to act.
But if he did, it wouldn’t help Jax. It was the wrong time and place. It would gain him nothing in the bigger picture. He had to use his head. At least now his mind was working.
He blinked slowly, keeping his eyes out of focus as he stared at nothing, trying to look completely passive.
“Tell me about the gateway,” Vendis said in a quiet tone of undiluted threat.
Alex shrugged, but didn’t answer.
Vendis smiled. It was as wicked a smile as Alex had ever seen.
“I’m not here to play games, as you will soon learn,” Vendis said, just as quietly, just as menacingly. “Come with me. I have something to show you.”
“All right,” Alex said in a slur.
He shuffled along behind Vendis, the rest of the people following behind Alex.
As he rounded the corner, the long row of showerheads sticking from the white tile wall came into view. Just like the men’s shower, there were no partitions. The showers were in one long, open room with a drain beneath each showerhead.
Alex went numb with dread.
About in the middle of the row, Jax, blindfolded, her hands bound together, was hanging by her wrists from one of the shower pipes projecting from the wall. She had to stretch in order for her tiptoes to reach the floor.
She was naked.
34
STANDING NEXT TO JAX was a man Alex instantly recognized. He was the burly passenger from the Jolly Roger Plumbing truck that had almost run over Jax the first time Alex had seen her. He was still wearing the same dark, dirty work clothes.
Jax’s clothes, the clothes she and Alex had bought together, lay where they had been carelessly tossed to the side as they’d stripped her.
The bearded man’s grin displayed crooked, yellow teeth. His dark eyes remained fixed on Alex, giving him a meaningful look while putting an arm around Jax’s waist in a familiar manner. She flinched slightly at his touch. In her drugged state she probably wouldn’t be able to understand it all, or to care a great deal.
“Glad you finally made it for the show,” the pirate said as he reached over with his other grimy hand and rubbed Jax’s bare belly. “We didn’t want to start in on this fine bitch until you was here.”
Alex could see Jax’s muscles tense at the man’s rough touch. She held her breath.
Alex put all his effort into keeping the rage off his face. It was a monumental task. More than anything, he wanted to kill everyone in the room and get Jax free. Most of all, though, he wanted to get his hands on the man who had his on Jax.
He knew, though, that if he did the wrong thing Jax was going to pay the price. He had stopped taking the drugs so that he would be able to think. That was what he had to do. As Ben had always said, it was his mind that was the real weapon.
“Now,” Vendis said, “I want you to tell me all about the gateway.”
Alex didn’t reply. He simply blinked dumbly, as if he wasn’t sure what they wanted him to say.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Vendis said in mock apology, gesturing to the filthy man with his arm tightly around Jax’s waist. “I forgot to introduce you. This fellow here is Yuri. As it so happens, Yuri knows this young lady. In fact, she killed his brother. Isn’t that right, Yuri?”
The look on Yuri’s face darkened. “Sure is. But I’m about to settle the score.”
“As you can see,” Vendis said, “Yuri has a rather unsympathetic attitude toward the young lady’s predicament. That’s why I invited him to come along. Men with grudges tend to be much more focused on getting revenge.”
Alex judged that he and Jax would have little chance to get away as long as she was so heavily drugged. She wouldn’t be able to help him and she wouldn’t be able to run. Trying to carry her and fight off pursuers at the same time would never work. He needed her at least partially alert in order to change the odds enough that they would have any real chance.
“All right,” Alex said in a slur. “Can I go now?”
“I didn’t come here to have you play games,” Vendis snapped.
“Don’t act stupid with me. We’re finished with all this nonsense of gentle pretense to coax answers forth. I’ve put up with games and the promises of results for long enough!
“You are going to tell me what I want to know, or else Yuri here is going to start cutting on her. Nothing fatal, you understand, but definitely disfiguring and, more importantly, agonizing. If you don’t want to cooperate and tell me about the gateway, I can tell you from experience that she is going to quickly become a rather gruesome, bloody sight.”
Alex shrugged. “All right.”
Vendis glowered. “What do you mean, ‘All right’?”
“Go ahead. Cut her up.”
A curious smile came to Vendis’s face. “You want me to start cutting her up?”
“If you want to,” Alex said.
When the man’s frown returned, Alex went on, slurring his words slightly. “She’s drugged. She won’t feel it. I know. I’m drugged the same way and I don’t really feel much of anything or care. If you kill her, you will be doing us a favor.”
“A favor?” The man looked truly puzzled. “What favor?”
Alex shrugged. “She will die without really suffering. She won’t feel it much or care. It will all be over.”
Vendis stepped closer. His voice became louder. “You’re making no sense.”
“I only know part of what you want. She knows the other part. Without the half she knows about the gateway, my half is of no use. If you kill her you will be doing us both a favor because you will fail to get what you want from this world and I won’t even have to feel sad about her death because, with the drugs, I can’t feel sad.
“The way she’s drugged, she won’t really feel it when you cut her, so go ahead. Cut her, let her bleed out and die. Then it will all be over and done with and you won’t get any of what you want.”
“You both will die, though. Die an agonizing death.”
Alex blinked slowly. He wavered a little on his feet for effect. “If we are to die a horrible death, what better way? This drugged up, neither of us will really feel it or care. That will be the end of it. Finished.”
Vendis turned to the doctor. “Do these potions you gave them do as he says?”
The doctor spread his hands. “The drugs are how we control them. It keeps them in a stupor.”
“And she won’t feel it if we cut her? He won’t care?”
“Well, not exactly. She’ll feel it.” The man cleared his throat. “But perhaps. . not as much as you would like. It would be only a distant pain. She may cry out a little, but it’s as he says. She really won’t be that aware of the pain, or care. Being on the same drugs, he can’t feel any anger or sadness about it. The drugs’ actual purpose, after all, is to prevent patients from feeling either hostility or emotional distress.”
Vendis ground his teeth before turning away from the doctor. He stalked to Jax. Yuri backed away.
Vendis lifted the blindfold to peer into Jax’s eyes. They were half closed. She didn’t look like she was much aware of anything. Alex knew only too well how out of touch she was with what was going on.
The thought crossed his mind that if what he was doing didn’t work, then it probably was just as well that she was drugged. He ached for her and what she was going through. He wanted nothing more than to break the necks of these people, but he had to mask his anger if he was to have a chance to save her.
Vendis reached out then, and viciously twisted her left nipple. She should have cried out. She didn’t flinch or try to pull away. She only hunched her back a little in a dull response to the pain. No more than a whisper of a moan came from her lips. Her glassy eyes showed virtually no reaction.
