In His Keeping (Slow Burn #2) (37 page)

There was so much blood. It soaked the entire front of her shirt, streaked from her ears down the sides of her neck, where it collected in large splattered spots atop the ridge between her shoulders and base of her neck. More blood covered her mouth, was drying in her nostrils and now that he was studying her closer he was able to confirm his earlier suspicion that she’d even bled from her
eyes
.

Had they beaten her so badly?

Despite the fact he’d already checked her pulse, his hand found its way to her neck again, seeking reassurance that he hadn’t imagined feeling the soft flutter of life beneath his fingertips. As before it was erratic, but it was strong against his touch. But his fear was of internal injuries, things he couldn’t see.

Despite his fear that she’d been badly beaten, he couldn’t find evidence of swelling or bruising on her face or head. The blood seemed inexplicable because the only bruises he found were those on her arms, as if she’d been grasped roughly. Ari had always bruised easily, and these somewhat small bruises looked to be fingertips. Nothing that would account for the blood so stark against her skin.

Ginger’s hand hovered over Ari’s face, her features rigid with consternation as she sought somewhere—anywhere—she could safely touch her daughter. Finally she laid her hand over Ari’s forehead, gently stroking up and over her scalp in a soothing motion.

Ari immediately flinched as though Ginger had struck her. It was the first time Ari had made any sort of movement or signaled any awareness of what was going on around her.

“Ari?” Gavin said urgently. “Ari, can you hear me? Are you awake? Please, sweetheart, open your eyes so your mother and I know you’re all right.”

To both their surprises, Ari brushed away her mother’s hand and then rolled away from them both to face the opposite direction. She pulled her legs up—a protective measure—to her chest and wrapped both arms solidly around them, seeming to pull herself into as small a ball as possible.

An agonized moan escaped her lips, and Gavin’s position was such that he could still see her face, even though she’d turned away from him and Ginger. Her eyes briefly closed as though she were battling . . . agony? Fear? Awareness? Or perhaps she merely wanted to escape her present reality. Maybe she was in so much pain that she simply wanted to slip away to someplace where it wasn’t so sharp and unbearable. Gavin hastily wiped the corner of one eye and blinked rapidly to maintain his tenuous grip on his composure.

“Ari?” Ginger started to touch her again but stilled her hand and let it drop away, anguish flashing in her eyes.

“Don’t,” Ari begged. “Oh God, please don’t.”

“Don’t what?” Gavin asked urgently. “Ari, can you talk to us? Can you tell us what happened? What did those bastards do to you?”

He choked off, unable to go on any further. Tears clogged his throat, rendering him temporarily incapable of speech. Ginger thrust her fingers through his, curling them around his hand, holding tightly, so much tension radiating through her body.

“Don’t touch,” Ari said, another moan escaping, her words so low, Gavin could barely make them out. “No noise. Please. I can’t bear it. Hurts. Hurts so much. Please, just don’t touch me. Don’t say anything.”

Ginger’s hand flew to her mouth and tears slipped from her eyes, more appearing as soon as the others slithered down her cheeks.

Ari reached up to cover her ears and then began slowly rocking herself back and forth, locked in her own private hell that Gavin and Ginger were helpless to soothe, calm or take away.

Ginger stood, honoring her daughter’s broken request, her eyes grief-stricken in a manner Gavin hadn’t seen in nearly twenty-five years. Not since the last child they’d lost had she looked so heartbroken.

Gavin jerkily rose, his fury mounting with every passing moment. Rage smoldered through his veins like a potent drug, his vision growing dim and hazy. He turned his back to both his wife and daughter, not wanting either of them to see the terrible thoughts reflected in his eyes. The thirst for vengeance. For violence. To destroy every last person involved in this whole sordid mess.

He let out a rumbling sound of pure male fury, one he instantly tried to quell when he saw Ari stiffen.

“The light,” Ginger said suddenly. “The light probably hurts her too.”

Ginger hurried toward where the single bulb hung from an electrical wire and fiddled with it a moment, loosening it just enough so that it flickered off.

Gavin turned, closing his eyes as grief and helplessness washed over him like a tidal wave. He hit the iron bars caging him, needing an outlet for his savage rage. Pain didn’t even register as he rammed his fist over and over into the groaning metal. The acrid smell of blood arose and it slid warmly over his fingers, dripping onto the floor below him.

Ginger threw her arms around his side and then slid around him until she separated him from the bars he’d been pummeling. Reverently she took his now-swollen hand in hers and pressed a kiss to the torn knuckles.

Then she buried her face in his chest so her sobs were stifled. Her entire body shook, and Gavin wrapped his arms around her in response, anchoring her. Then he buried his face in his wife’s hair, his own tears dampening the silken strands, as his heart, like his wife’s, simply broke in two.

They held on to one another for a long moment before Ginger’s muffled voice rose. “What did they do to our baby, Gavin? What do they want?”

Gavin ran his hands up and down the length of her spine, trying to offer her comfort when there was none to be had. “I don’t know,” he said in a low voice. “Damn it, I don’t know!”

“How can we protect her when we’re helpless?” Ginger asked, her distress becoming more pronounced.

“We aren’t helpless.”

Gavin and Ginger both whipped around in shock as Ari’s dull, toneless voice reached them. She sounded almost . . . robotic.

“What, baby?” Gavin asked softly, though he’d heard her clearly. He just wasn’t sure what she had meant.

“I’ll bring down the entire house,” she said softly, turning over so she faced her parents willingly for the first time.

Power snapped and sparkled around them, electrifying the very air in the damp cell. Where before the air had always been stuffy, hard to breathe, now it seemed charged, particles shimmering, a breeze suddenly shifting, restless, blowing a chill through as if a window had been opened to allow fresh air in.

The bars began to rattle ominously. The cot shook beneath Ari. The concrete floor trembled beneath their feet. Outside the cell, in neighboring ones, pillows, blankets, even an old, discarded shoe rose into the air, spinning rapidly before slamming against the iron bars caging the small interiors.

Ginger glanced at Gavin, worry and unease dark in her eyes. He knew his expression wasn’t likely any different. Something was very wrong here. In the distance, the sound of breaking glass could be heard, the shattering of a window. The wind whistled down the hallway, howling ominously, like a wind tunnel.

“Gavin!” Ginger whispered, her horrified gaze locked on Ari.

Gavin pulled his gaze from the objects whirling freely through the air and focused on his daughter and immediately saw what concerned Ginger. Blood was seeping from Ari’s nose, dripping onto the worn sheet of the cot.

“Ari, baby,” Ginger said in an aching voice. She hurried over to her daughter and carefully slid onto the edge of the bed, careful not to touch her. “Is that where all the blood came from? Did they make you use your powers?”

But Ari’s eyes were distant. Vacant, as though she were miles away. Here, but
not
here.

“I’ll kill them all,” Ari said, her eyes coming to life, glowing eerily where before they’d been utterly lifeless. Then she leveled a stare at her parents, for the first time seemingly aware of her surroundings. “And Beau will come,” she said simply.

THIRTY-TWO

AFTER
Ari’s cryptic statement, she’d immediately drifted into sleep, her features contorted at first and then finally easing as she slid deeper into rest. Ginger lay beside Ari while Gavin paced the confines of the cell restlessly, like a caged lion.

He wanted to know what the hell had been done to Ari, but she’d been unable to provide answers, and he wasn’t about to push her when she was seemingly so fragile. But then she’d made that chilling vow that he was still turning over in his mind.

She’d sounded, not only determined, but resolved. Confident. Fearless. And that scared him to death. What the hell was she planning to do? And how could he stand by and do nothing? How could he stop her from whatever it was that put that implacable expression on her face? One that told him she would not be swayed from her objective.

He closed his eyes, whispering a prayer to an entity he’d never believed in before Ginger and Ari had entered his life. He truly believed they were a gift from the angels. God. A higher being. It didn’t matter what He was called. Gavin believed—truly believed—when he’d never believed in anything but what he himself had the power to accomplish in his life.

Now he prayed a sincere, fervent prayer for God to watch over and protect his wife and daughter. What happened to him was inconsequential. He’d give his life for the two women he loved so dearly and never hesitate. But he wasn’t willing to allow either of them to do the same for him.

He shook his head at the ridiculous turn of his thoughts. Ari had been insensible. Catatonic. Deeply traumatized. He doubted she’d even remember her words when she next awoke. Even as he prayed she’d awaken soon so he could have the answers he so desperately wanted.

Though Ginger was lying on the cot with Ari, she wasn’t asleep. She was as wide-awake as Gavin. Ari had sensed her mother’s presence even at rest and had snuggled closer to her as she’d settled more firmly into the grasp of sleep. Healing sleep, Gavin hoped.

Ginger ran her fingers through Ari’s long hair, something Ari had always enjoyed from an early age. She loved having her hair played with, her head rubbed. It had often comforted her when she’d wake crying in the night. Or when she wasn’t feeling well.

“Mama?”

Ari’s soft voice reached Gavin’s ears and he whipped around, his gaze immediately seeking his daughter. Her back was still to him. Ginger had crawled between Ari and the wall of the cell so she could lie down with her daughter without disturbing her rest.

“Yes, darling,” Ginger said quietly, in deference to Ari’s earlier sound sensitivity.

“Where’s Dad?” Ari whispered back. “Is he here?”

Gavin started to respond, and he was just about to rush over so he could see her for himself and vice versa, but Ari’s next words stopped him cold.

“They have monitors in here. They can’t see that I’m awake so don’t give it away that I am,” Ari said in the same whisper. “Look at Dad, so I know where he is, but don’t do or say anything to suggest I’m awake.”

Gavin controlled his frown. Barely. To Ginger’s credit, her expression remained worried and thoughtful just as it had in the last two hours Ari had slept. No betraying emotion or flicker of worry, excitement or anticipation reflected in her carefully controlled features.

Ginger glanced up at Gavin and held his gaze long enough for Ari to ascertain his whereabouts.

“Tell him not to move or rather continue doing whatever he was doing,” Ari continued to whisper so Gavin had to strain to hear. “Well, don’t say that,” she hastily amended. “They can hear you.”

“He can hear you, darling,” Ginger said without even moving her lips as she continued stroking Ari’s hair and holding Gavin’s gaze, just as she’d done the entire time Ari had slept.

Gavin saw Ari visibly relax. He hadn’t realized just how much tension was contained in her small frame until he saw her sink further into the bed.

“There are things you need to prepare yourselves for,” Ari continued.

Gavin walked over to the bed, just as he’d done several times over the past hours and peered down at her as if checking on her. Her words worried him and he needed reassurance. Just to look at her, touch her so he knew she was okay.

“Has she awakened at all?”

He directed the question to Ginger and reached down to lightly stroke Ari’s cheek with his finger, another thing he’d done many times in his worry since she’d fallen into sleep.

Tears glittered on Ari’s eyelashes, and Gavin’s chest tightened in emotion. Damn it! There was so much he wanted to ask. So much he needed to know and his hands were tied. He simmered with impatience, but forced himself to remain in character, not deviating from the pattern he’d established as he and Ginger had watched over their sleeping daughter.

“Not yet,” Ginger said in a louder tone. “I’m worried, Gavin. What if they did something terrible to her?”

His clever, clever girl. Finding a way to ask Ari the questions he was dying to ask without anyone being able to pick up on what they were doing.

“I had to let them,” Ari said, not moving or reacting to her father’s touch, though the tears he’d seen just seconds earlier told him a wealth of information. “It’s complicated.”

Ari took in a steadying breath, careful not to allow her body language to signal she was anything but deeply asleep. Everything hinged on their captors not picking up on her deception. The havoc she intended to wreak, the vengeance she planned to bring down on them like the wrath of God, had to be unexpected.

Her parents wouldn’t like what she had to say. Her father especially wouldn’t at all like that he would have to take no active part in her plan. That only Ari would face down their enemies. Alone.

“They want to use my powers. And they’re strong. My powers, I mean. So much more than we ever dreamed. In just a short time, I’ve managed feats I would have never believed myself capable of and yet I know I can do so much more.”

“Do you think she was experimented on?” her mother asked her husband, still playing her role to perfection. “Is that where the blood came from?”

“I don’t know,” Gavin murmured, injecting fatherly outrage and anger into his voice.

“Yes,” Ari whispered, slowly reaching for her mother’s hand. The one lying in the space between them. With her father standing behind her and her mother so close to her on the narrow cot, there was no way for the camera to pick up on the subtle movement.