TORTURE ME_ The Bandits MC(79)
“I do,” Gage murmured, but he couldn’t stop himself from pressing on. “But have you ever thought that maybe this is what you were supposed to do? That maybe what happened to you happened for a reason? So you could help these women like you did with Tori earlier today?”
Fiona shook her head. “There’s no easy explanation for it. A psychopath got his hands on me, just like he did to Abby and Tori and all the other girls that got hurt. There’s no deeper meaning than that.”
Gage opened his mouth, ready to argue with her some more, when the door to Jack’s bedroom opened and Jack popped out, his eyes wide and his mouth dropped open as he clutched Fiona’s cell phone to his chest.
“Well, shit, that took a lot less than an hour to do,” Fiona commented, but Jack just shook his head and focused his attention on Gage.
“Gage. This is serious. This is bad.”
“What, you can’t find the location?” Gage asked, feeling his heart drop down to his stomach in disappointment.
Jack shook his head again, harder this time. “No, no, that’s not it. I did find it.”
“Great! Tell us where he is, and we’ll get that fucker!” Fiona said as her hands balled up into fists, preparing herself for a fight.
“That’s just it. It came from here.”
“What do you mean?” Gage asked, even though his blood seemed to freeze inside him, like his body already knew the answer to his question.
“The call originated within the Bandits’ compound. The killer is someone we know.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“We need to start searching every room in this goddamn building,” Fiona said, immediately launching herself off the wall and beginning to pace back and forth in the hallway outside of Jack’s room.
Gage shook his head firmly, but Fiona could see that the color had drained from his face, leaving him pale and washed-out. “We can’t do that. That would alert the killer that we’re on to him and give him a chance to get away.”
“Lockdown, then,” Fiona said. “Nobody comes in or out, starting now, until we find out who did this.”
This time Jack interrupted her. “There’s too many entrances and exits to the building. I don’t even know where all the doors are, and I’ve been here for a while. The caller would have plenty of time to get away unless you successfully guess who he is before you search anybody else’s rooms.”
“We have to do something!” Fiona practically shrieked before sighing heavily, clearly fighting hard to keep her composure. “Look, chances are the killer is in this building right now, and we can’t just let go of that opportunity.”
“You’re right,” Gage said, his forehead wrinkling up as he frowned. “But you can’t be involved, Fiona.”
“What? What are you talking about? I’m going to help you look,” she protested, feeling a wave of panic begin to surge inside of her. He can’t cut me out of this, she thought. He just can’t. I’m in too deep now.
“Jack and I can go room to room and look around without alerting anybody that we’re suspicious. But you stick out like a sore thumb. Maybe last year at this time, you could have just hung around and nobody would have thought anything different, but they know you’re here on a case. It’s too risky. You can’t help,” Gage said.
“Like fuck am I backing off now!” Fiona shouted, shaking her head at Gage. “And you can’t stop me.”
Gage’s breathing became audible, his breaths puffing out of him like thick smoke before he finally spoke again. “I can’t let you. I’m sorry.” The sadness in his eyes almost pierced Fiona’s heart, but she was too angry at the moment to let him in.
Fiona briefly considered breaking into a run, hiding in the various rooms of the compound while searching their contents for any suspicious evidence. But she knew it was no use. Gage was stronger than her and could easily restrain her if he had to, and he also had Jack on his side to help him. There was no way she could successfully investigate any of the rooms without the two of them following her around, preventing her from searching as thoroughly as she’d like. “Goddammit,” she huffed under her breath, staring down at her own shoes so Gage wouldn’t see that hot tears had just filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Gage whispered from across the hall.
“Oh, save it,” Fiona said. “I don’t want to hear it from you anymore. You want me in the city, but you don’t want me to be in control, not really. You’re scared of what I’ll do because I’m just a crazy victim and you’re calm and detached, and therefore, you think you’re better at this than me somehow. Well, it doesn’t fucking work that way.”