"What the fuck have you done?" Ryan's voice was one I had never heard before. Dark, threatening, lethal.
I heard muffled sounds down the other end of the line, as though Harvey was on the move.
"You weren't supposed to be there."
"You've already said that. What the fuck have you done, Stone?"
"I had no choice."
"To hell with your choices. WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE!"
"You had Nick!" Harvey yelled back. "ASI security. There was no way he could get through that!"
"Who?!"
"I tried," Harvey almost whined. It sounded desperate. It sounded like a man teetering on the edge of a cliff, about to choose to take that next step off. "I held out as long as I could. I misdirected. I did everything I could think of to give you time to catch him first. But he said he'd kill them."
"Who said? What the fuck, Stone?!"
I could hardly breathe. I felt trapped by the wretched words pouring from Ryan's phone. I felt frozen by the look of utter dread and dawning comprehension gracing his face. I felt sick enough I might just vomit.
But I couldn't move. I had to keep listening. I had to know. And I think Ryan was the same. A morbid sense of fascination, a dark desire that would lead us into the abyss.
"You got distracted," Harvey was saying, his words picking up speed now. "Its your fault. Not mine. How was I to know you couldn't keep your dick in your pants?"
Oh dear God.
"You fucking arsehole!" Ryan spat.
"Fuck you, Pierce! I tried to warn you. Tried to get you to pull your head out of the fucking clouds and do your job. But you wouldn't listen. Fuck. You lied! Said she was just a casual coincidence. Said it wouldn't happen again."
I felt an inch tall.
"I lied? What the fucking hell have you done? What the fucking hell have you kept from me?" Ryan demanded, voice strained.
"And then you took her there," Harvey went on, not even hearing Ryan anymore. In his own tortured moment, dragging us down with him into the dark. "Fuck! She must be a fucking awesome lay to get you to face your murdered mother's house like that."
"You fucking leave my mother out of it! And don't talk about Marie like that!"
"It's not my fault you've gone and lost your head over a fucking criminal bride!"
Ryan's chest was heaving, his fists were clenched. Sweat had broken out across his forehead.
"Just tell me," he pleaded. Another tone of voice I did not expect to hear from Ryan Pierce. "Just tell me, Harvey. What the hell is going on?"
Silence. Just the sound of air rushing past the cellphone, giving the impression that Harvey was on the move, and moving fast.
"I haven't dared to breathe for three days," Harvey said, so quietly I leaned forward and Ryan immediately put the phone on speaker so I could hear.
The sound of air rushing past a window was louder this way, but Harvey's next words were crystal clear.
"They sent me Caitlin's teddy bear."
"Jesus," Ryan muttered, reaching for my hand instinctively.
"Said it would be her finger next."
Ryan closed his eyes, anger warring with agony over his face.
"Said it would be easy to snatch her from pre-school. Take Sherry as well."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ryan said, eyes still closed.
But Harvey wasn't capable of hearing any longer.
"I did what I could, you gotta know that," he pleaded.
"I don't know shit," Ryan replied, his voice a little hollow, the words almost said to himself. "You should have told me." His eyes opened and there was a depth of pain there, that I had only seen on his face when he talked of his birth mother's death.
This was Ryan's worst nightmare. His close friend, his partner's family, going through something as harrowing as this.
"I got Church," Harvey said, a horn blaring out in the distance over the line.
Ryan's gaze flicked up to mine. He was breathing harshly, trying to contain his emotions. But they were written all over his clenched jaw; in the line of his tight, thin lips; in the shadows that haunted the brown of his eyes.
"I couldn't get Andrews," Harvey added.
Ryan blinked, sucked in a deep breath. His pulse thundered in his neck. I tried to count it. I couldn't keep up. It petrified me. My hand snaked out and wrapped around his wrist in an effort to feel his pulse there.
"I'm sorry," Harvey said, the words almost lost to the sound of Ryan's and my breathing.
"How long have we got?" Ryan asked, and there was a calmness there that chilled me to the bone.
I didn't hear Harvey's reply. The freezing, icy lake I'd fallen into, upon hearing the first words of torment out of Harvey's mouth, swallowed me whole; drowned me. Panic seized my lungs, constricted my heart. My eyes darted to the doorway of the room.