Absolute Zero (53 page)

She flinched as if he hit her.

“Oh! Come on, don’t be like that. He also said you’re very smart and very good at what you do. I have the utmost faith in your abilities,” he smiled.

“I can’t help you,” she breathed out. “I don’t even know if this
works
…”

“Oh, it works,” he stated quickly.

“How do you…?”

“It works, trust me.”

“What?” She gasped out.

“I found a test specimen – outside the normal channels, I guess you could say. The solution worked like a charm. I had to get rid of him, though. He was as an ex-con junkie anyway, who cares?” he shrugged his wide shoulders.

Her hands reached up as her face hid behind them, her shackled wrists jangling loudly in the confines of the room.

“I can’t…this is all too…” her breath whooshed out.

“I know. And it’s sad, Anne. I like you. I really do. I don’t want to do this to you but it’s your own damn fault, you know. You’re too fuckin’ smart.”

Her hands fell to her lap as her eyes connected with his. A small laugh jolted her shoulders before a full on manic giggle escaped her throat. It was the most surreal thing, hearing Sam’s final words come out of Rand’s mouth.

“Is that funny? What’s so funny?” he asked in total confusion.

“Nothing,” she shook her head before eyeing him warily. Unfortunately everything he was telling her made perfect sense. She would have never gone to Dunmed if she wasn’t blacklisted. David was the one to suggest the project and even pushed to get her the equipment she needed. At the time, she assumed he was being thoughtful. He was using her. They were all just
using
her. Rand put an awful lot of effort into this but why?

“Rand?”

“Yeah?”

“Tell me. Tell me why?” she asked in her most soothing voice.

“Why what?”

“Why are you doing this? Why would you…destroy people…for this?” she asked softly.

“I told you! She loves me,” he pushed off the floor and walked toward the back of the cage. His hand stroked Shelby’s hair through the mesh as he looked down on her. She made no move whatsoever. In fact, her eyes were still fastened on Anne.

“Her Daddy was an
asshole
,” he grated out.

“That picture. In your office. You were looking down at
her,
weren’t you?” Anne asked as her eyes fastened on Shelby.

“Yeah. Shay thinks I’m looking at
her
in that picture, isn’t that funny?”

“What
about
Shay? She loves you. The kids love you…”

“That’s unfortunate. I don’t give a shit about Shay. I never wanted kids. That was
her
idea. I was just trying to be the good husband. It’s all a huge lie. I always loved Shelby,” he continued to stroke her hair as he talked.

“She fucked me over big time. She let me screw her but she just wouldn’t stand up to her old man. He was a bigoted dick. She was sooo worried about her image. I was All-State! The best quarterback, best student, perfect grades and I just didn’t have the right skin color, right, bitch?” he gave a quick yank to her hair, causing her head to tilt back.

“So, I get a scholarship, I go away thinking maybe by the time I get back she might get her head out of her ass and then? Daddy dies. So sad. I was practically dancing on that asshole’s grave and then? Fucking Ian McClellan shows up and she’s all over him. I thought for sure we’d be together and I thought it was her Daddy, but you know what? It was
her.
She just used it as an excuse. I killed for you, bitch,” he slammed his palm against the metal cage causing her to blink a few times before settling back into a drugged state.

“I did. George – Irene’s husband? Drunk ass George? He caught us. I was screwing her in the science lab and he walks in on us while he’s cleaning at night. She’s freaking out about her Daddy, so I took care of that shit. I killed him, made it look like an accident. Everything was Ok. Everyone assumed he screwed up because he had alcohol in his system. It was so perfect!” he continued to stroke her hair.

Anne’s mouth opened and shut, her mind whirling. “You killed George?”

“Yeah. Wasn’t much of a loss. He was a loser anyway,” he justified with a shrug. Anne’s eyes only widened. He was truly out of his mind and yet he seemed like the same person that sat across from her in his office. Jovial, friendly even as he talked about killing someone.

“Shelby told me to go after Shay. She did. She said she wanted to be with Ian but she wanted
me
to be happy. I married Shay just to show her. You know what she did? She came back. She was jealous. She was married to Ian and I was still banging her every chance I got because she
loved
it. Her limp dick husband couldn’t knock her up, so I poked holes in my condoms. I got her pregnant. I figured she’d finally have to acknowledge our relationship when she had the baby. Guess it would have been pretty obvious, huh? I never thought in a million years that she would abort the baby. I had no idea she was so fucking
evil
.” He gave the cage a firm slap. “Bitch,” he added causing Shelby’s head to snap forward.

“I like to think maybe she wasn’t in her right mind. Maybe that thing in her head was screwing with her. I couldn’t lose her. I waited forever for her and she was going to die? No way. Ron injected his poison in her brain and I figured it was worth a shot, right? She was going to die anyway. Here she is, though. Two years later, alive but crazy as a loon. I can’t get near her unless she’s drugged up and even
then
she tries to fight me. We need to get out of here. We need to get out before they come looking for us. I can’t travel with her like this.”

“What about Shay?” Anne asked in a quiet voice.

“What about her? I left her. I lost my job and I up and left her. Big deal - happens all the time, right? Maybe she’ll think I wasted myself. I don’t care. I have enough money to live on for a while. I’ll go far enough away that she won’t find me. She can sell the house, maybe get a job. I was sick of supporting her ass anyway,” he sneered.

“I just wish I would have had more time to plan this better. Getting fired kind of accelerated this. I just can’t figure out why he started digging into this. He could’ve cared a less about this place and now he’s all up in my shit. I might have to kill him. I wanted to before, but I needed him. If he was gone, who knew what would have happened to the company? Now it doesn’t matter.”

He pierced Anne with a narrowed gaze suddenly.

“You look a little pale. What’s the matter? You couldn’t stand him either.”

She tried desperately to school her features into a something bland although his words couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“Yeah. It would probably look suspicious though. He fires you, you vanish; he ends up dead, probably not the best idea…” she mumbled.

“I know. I would
really
like to kill him, though.”

Shelby let a low moan, causing him to slap the cage.

“Shut up. What do
you
care? You didn’t love him. Maybe I’ll kill him in
front
of you.”

Anne and Shelby’s eyes connected again and it was almost as if she looked pained even in a drugged state.
Did she love him?
Anne’s eyes darted elsewhere. The realization dawned that she had been sleeping with a married man. Of course, he didn’t
know
he was married.

“You hungry?” The woman’s voice carried down the steps. Rand looked at Anne. “Hungry?” he asked casually.

Her stomach was practically tied in knots. She would probably throw up anything she tried to swallow anyway.

“No.”

“Not yet!” he yelled in the direction of the steps.

“Who is that?” Anne asked.

“Just a junkie I know. She’ll do anything you ask if you keep her supplied, works out pretty well,” he nodded.

“What happened to Kelly?”

“Kelly…she was a winner,” he scoffed. “I shot her up with some good shit, stuck her in Shelby’s car, followed her and ran her off the road. I doused the whole interior of the car. She was so messed up she didn’t say shit. You should have seen the flames. It was crazy. Burned like a mother…” he stated, obviously proud of himself judging from the sick smile on his face.

“What about me?”

“What
about
you?”

“You want me to help you. You’ve told me all of this. Obviously I’m not walking out of here…”

“Well, what do you expect? It’s Ok, though. With your past history, no one would think it odd if you up and killed yourself after you’ve been fired
. Again
. No big deal.”

“I won’t help you. You might as well kill me now.” She fixed him with a glare even though her body wanted to convulse at the thought.

“We’ll kill Beth,” he stated simply.

*****

“Where is she?!” Irene screamed out as she paced in front of Ian.

“Irene? Think. I wasn’t even
here
when Kelly left. How would I get her phone? And why would I leave it out in the open for anyone to find?”

That caused her to pause. “I have no idea and yet, here it is. Where
is
she?” Frustrated tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks.

“I don’t know,” he stated quietly. “You have to believe me, Irene. I have no idea…”

“I can’t believe you. How can I believe you? I’m holding the evidence in my hand. Look at all of these messages.” Her finger scrolled through them as fresh tears gathered and distorted her vision. “Hundreds of them…hundreds…You know, I always thought they seemed extremely impersonal, like it wasn’t her writing them.  But I laughed that off,” she stated under her breath, “Now, I’m not so sure,” she added.

“Check the dates, check my schedule. I probably wasn’t even here when most of those texts took place,” Ian stated. “Someone planted that phone for you to find. It wasn’t me, Irene.”

“So someone broke into your house and just laid a cell phone on your desk? Do you know how asinine that sounds?”

“Kelly had a key. Maybe she left it here. Maybe she’s been hiding out here when I’m in Scotland? How the hell do I know? I just know that it wasn’t there on my desk this morning before I left. I can guarantee that. I would’ve noticed.”

“She’s not hanging out here. I clean every week. I would’ve caught on to something if that was the case. I’m the only other person with a key. I know
I
didn’t do it. That leaves you.”

He dug in his coat pocket and produced his keys; picking through and finding the correct one. He still had it so it wasn’t as if someone took it…

There
was
another one. He quickly dismissed it. There was no way…

*****

Anne watched as the thin woman settled a tray under the cage wall and stepped back quickly. Shelby knelt on the floor, her fingers grabbing and stuffing the food in her mouth. She made odd grunting sounds as she ate, almost like an animal. Ron turned her into an animal. Her eyes flicked to the woman as she climbed the stairs again without so much as a glance in Anne’s direction.

She fixed her gaze on Shelby once again.

Ron. Ron could communicate, somewhat. He told her to run. He was able to get that out. He recognized her name, she was certain of it. He wasn’t so far gone that his comprehension was diminished. Maybe Shelby was able to comprehend? Anne had thought Ron was shushing her to keep her quiet but maybe he was trying to say
Shelby
?

“Shelby?”

The other woman continued to chew without looking up.

“Shelby,” Anne’s voice was louder, more authoritative.  She still didn’t respond.

They were alone in the basement for the first time since she woke up. The sounds of clanking from above the steps confirmed that Rand and his ‘friend’ were probably eating also.

“You know? I can surgically alter your frontal lobe and yet I
cannot
figure out how to get us out of this mess,” Anne mumbled sadly as she continued to watch the other woman. “I’m not feeling very smart right now. You have any ideas?” she asked absently before sucking her bottom lip under her teeth.

Anne shook her head and gazed down at the shackles around her wrist. She followed the chains to the eyehook screwed into the stone wall behind her. Her body was so incredibly uncomfortable and no amount of shifting would alieve the discomfort.

“Shelby?” She asked again, not really expecting a response. She looked up to see that the other woman was now holding on to the front of the cage, her face pressed up against the metal links. She was staring intently at Anne as she chewed.

“Ha…” she breathed out, her mouth still full.

“Haaaaa….” She tried again before shaking her head violently from side to side. Creaking on the stairs caused both women to look over as feet came into view. Not Rand, luckily. The thin woman had another tray and she shuffled over to place it near Anne.