Ruthless (32 page)

She chewed on that for a minute. “All right,” she finally conceded, like it was a major imposition.

Eric set him down carefully. There wasn’t an inch of Anselmo that wasn’t scarred. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before on a meta, like his skin had tried to regrow itself where it had been lost, but stretched over boiling metal or something. He had ripples everywhere, like stuff was still under his skin, and none of it was smooth. The man was a freak-show attraction, and if his body hadn’t healed it by now, Simmons kinda doubted it would ever heal.

Simmons looked back at the dowdy woman, but she was already on her way back to the kitchen. “Can I … get something to drink?”

“There’s beer in the fridge,” the woman answered, disappearing into a side room. He stood there in the room for a moment, looking around at ratty decorations—a couple of dusty deer heads on the wall, a mirror with a beer brand on it, an old box TV, not a flatscreen, and decaying furniture.

What the hell was Cassidy thinking, dragging him to a place like this?

He heard talk coming from where the woman had gone, so he followed. Nothing to do here but listen to Anselmo moan in his state of semi-consciousness anyway.

Eric passed into a goldenrod kitchen that hadn’t been painted in a few decades. He was starting to see a theme in this place. There was another woman waiting in there, features similar enough to the woman he’d met before to mark her as a daughter. Had to be a daughter. “Hi,” Eric said, smiling tightly at his hosts.

There had been some talk going on, but it shushed the minute he entered the kitchen. The daughter was sitting in a chair at the table and stared at him, taking stock. She finally just nodded her head toward an archway over her shoulder. “She’s through there, in the parlor.” Like there was no other reason he was talking to her. He had to admit, if he hadn’t been in her home … he wouldn’t have.

Her blessing given, Eric went on through. The room beyond had old floorboards darkened with age, no carpet to hide them. Here he was greeted with furniture that was maybe a little newer. Leatherbound sofas sat side by side, and the driver was on one of them, attention transfixed on a TV in front of him. This was a flatscreen. The place looked like a den, whereas the other room beyond the kitchen looked like someone’s grandma’s sitting room, from the days when they had sitting rooms.

“GO GO GO GO!” the driver shouted, so loudly and suddenly that Eric jumped back. The driver—Clyde Jr.—had his attention focused on the screen in front of him, hadn’t even noticed Eric in the room.

Eric watched for a minute; it was a football game on. “Who’s playing?”

“OSU, of course,” the driver said, like he was stupid for even asking.

Eric did feel stupid. Felt stupid for coming here, stupid for staying. But he had business to attend to. He needed to find Cassidy. Couldn’t leave without her. “Where’s—” he started to ask.

“GO GO GO, you stupid bastard, RUN!” Clyde Jr. yelled, like that would somehow influence the events unfolding before him. Hell of a cheerleader, that guy.

Eric started to leave, caught a whiff of something familiar—maybe a little pot in the air, maybe a little something else—and stayed a second longer. He couldn’t smoke around Cassidy. This smelled like it had been in the air a while, just traces, something that had happened a long time ago and was still lingering.

“She’s over there, man,” Clyde Jr. said, pointing to the corner. The place was so overstuffed with crap that Eric hadn’t even noticed it there, hiding behind a quilt rack. He’d just taken it as part of the decor.

The chamber.

He walked over and tapped on the lid with one finger, a little message in Morse code. She liked it when he played cool, acted a little smart, did the slightly unexpected. It was all she could hope for, really. She had a brain unlike any other person on the planet, and surprising her was … well, on the big things, it was nearly impossible.

Sometimes, on the small things, though … it was all the fun in the world.

The lid cracked immediately, and smell of salty water from inside the chamber came rushing out. It was pretty reasonably sized, the sensory deprivation tank. The lid lifted end up, and the three different computer screens Cassidy had in front of her swung with the lid, safely clutched by their reticulating arms from falling into the saltwater solution that kept her afloat when she was inside. He caught the first glimpse of her pale face, heard the first gasp and wheeze as she tried to sit up. She fumbled for the inhaler that she kept in a waterproof pocket near the lid and forced it into her mouth, forming her lips from the smile of greeting into a closed O as she inhaled. Her eyes fluttered, and then she slipped the inhaler away and started to get up, reaching for him.

He pulled her out of the chamber and hugged her tight. It had been days, a week—he didn’t even know. “Oh, baby,” he lied, “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too,” she said, slow and breathy. Her wet hair fell across his shoulder, she planted her cold lips to his neck and he shuddered. He hated the feel of her when she was just getting out of the tank. Her body was thin, skeletal; it felt weird compared to the other girls he’d been with. Being with Cassidy had pushed him in the opposite direction; when he was away from her now, he automatically went for the bigger girls. Like a reaction.

She pulled herself off of him, leaning against the chamber. He felt his wet clothes and ignored it; he’d had to make a lot of compromises to keep Cassidy in his life. But it was all worth it, having the biggest brain on the planet at your disposal. “You don’t like our new hideout,” she said, like it took all her genius to figure that out.

He took the den in with a sweeping look once more, and saw the older woman, the mother, standing in the archway to the kitchen. Just watching. “I, uh …” Eric started, trying to be diplomatic, “… I’m just trying to figure out why we’re in Nebraska, baby.”

“There’s a real good reason,” Cassidy said. “Because we needed help.”

Eric looked it over again, expecting the place to change somehow. It didn’t. “Well, now we have had the help, and we can go to … L.A., maybe? San Fran?” Even Denver would be a nice change from this. Or Aspen. He could do some snowboarding. It was close, wasn’t it?

“Y’all gonna stay right here until I get what I was promised,” the woman said from the archway. Eric turned to see her, arms folded over her apron.

“Eric,” Cassidy said gently, “this is Ma. You already met her daughter, Denise, and her son. She’s a … friend. We have something in common.”

“Oh, yeah?” Eric asked, not taking his eyes off “Ma.” Probably not her given name, he decided. “What’s that?”

“Sienna Nealon killed my boy,” Ma said, and she put her head down like a bull ready to charge as she said it. “My little Clyde. Left his two youngins behind without no daddy.” She nodded to the driver, Clyde Jr. on the couch. “She needs to pay for that.”

“We have a man on the inside of her agency,” Cassidy said as Eric turned back to her. “He confirmed for the Clarys here what they’d already suspected. Heard it straight from her own lips that she killed him. They’re …” Cassidy smiled, “… not the forgiving sorts.” She leaned in a little closer to him, and he felt her wet hair against his neck again. Cold. “Like your friend Anselmo, I think.” She nuzzled into him. “Like you … maybe?”

Eric stared straight ahead, at a faux wood-paneled wall that looked like it had been shit out of the dirtiest forest known to man.

Nebraska, huh?

Couldn’t be all that bad.

“Maybe we could stay for a little while,” Eric said, putting a hand against her head, feeling her cold, clammy skin against his. What was that old saying, about revenge and how it ought to be served? He’d prefer it hot, but Cassidy, she knew how to do it right. He looked around the room, saw Ma’s face, and knew she was in for a helping of it exactly the same. “Have ourselves a little … fun.”

I had a world of fun with that one. Maybe you'd think after eleven books of Sienna as a main character, number twelve would start to feel boring for me, but NOPE. That one may have been the most fun one I've ever written. I love letting Sienna be Sienna, pitting her against some really bad people while I sit back and watch her do her thing. The other fun part of this one was gearing up the next big story arc, which will run from now until book six of the series. I call it the “Vengeful” arc, and I think you've probably gotten a taste of who we'll be dealing with in this storyline. But how it all unfolds? BWAHAHAHAH! That should be…surprising. These smaller stories are how I plan to handle things in Out of the Box; that way you'll see the end of this story arc by the end of 2015, and there'll be another for 2016, 2017, etc. for however long the series runs (still plotted at 25 books with an overarching storyline that is looser than Girl in the Box and won't fully pay off until then.

I've once again set a release date for book four. I make no promises about doing this for future installments. If you want to know when future books become available, take sixty seconds and sign up for my NEW RELEASE EMAIL ALERTS by
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Cheers,

Robert J. Crane

Okay, I'll admit it. I've run out of new ways to thank people and make it interesting. I'll try again next book.

My thanks to these fine folks, without whom this book would not be possible:

Sarah Barbour, Jeff Bryan and Jo Evans – Editorial clean-up crew.

Nicolette Solomita – First reader.

Karri Klawiter – Cover by.

Polgarus Studios – Formatting.

The fans – For reading.

My parents, my kids, my wife – For all their help.

Robert J. Crane is kind of an a-hole. Still, if you want to contact him:

Defender: The Sanctuary Series, Volume One

Avenger: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Two

Champion: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Three

Crusader: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Four

Sanctuary Tales, Volume One - A Short Story Collection

Thy Father's Shadow: The Sanctuary Series, Volume 4.5

Master: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Five

Fated in Darkness: The Sanctuary Series, Volume 5.5* (Coming in 2015!)

Warlord: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Six* (Coming in late 2015!)

Alone: The Girl in the Box, Book 1

Untouched: The Girl in the Box, Book 2

Soulless: The Girl in the Box, Book 3

Family: The Girl in the Box, Book 4

Omega: The Girl in the Box, Book 5

Broken: The Girl in the Box, Book 6

Enemies: The Girl in the Box, Book 7

Legacy: The Girl in the Box, Book 8

Destiny: The Girl in the Box, Book 9

Power: The Girl in the Box, Book 10

Limitless: Out of the Box, Book 1

In the Wind: Out of the Box, Book 2

Ruthless: Out of the Box, Book 3

Grounded: Out of the Box, Book 4* (Coming June 1, 2015!)

Tormented: Out of the Box, Book 5* (Coming September 2015!)

Vengeful: Out of the Box, Book 6* (Coming December 2015!)

Called: Southern Watch, Book 1

Depths: Southern Watch, Book 2

Corrupted: Southern Watch, Book 3

Unearthed: Southern Watch, Book 4* (Coming Early 2015!)

*Forthcoming and subject to change