Lincoln Hospital (Trauma #1) (22 page)

“Looks like I got a two for one deal.  Not bad.”

Athena’s head was pounding when she opened her eyes and she had a brief moment to think that she’d need to take some aspirin before heading into work. Something felt off and when she raised her head and looked around, she realized she wasn’t home in her bed at all.  She was in some sort of a basement.  And she wasn’t alone.  At least a half dozen girls were down there with her, all restrained and some looked quite injured, blood seeping out from several wounds.

A moan off to her left had her turning her head and her eyes widened when she saw Sabine laying on the concrete floor, feet chained to a rail.

“Sab? Sabine, can you hear me?” she called out frantically.  Fuck, where the hell were they?  She vaguely remembered making plans to take a walk around the hospital gardens with Sabine on their break to choose a spot to plant a memorial tree for Sebastian.  When she’d stepped outside, Sabine was nowhere to be found.  Something had caught the corner of her eye and she saw her being transported away in a car by some guy in a mask.  Not thinking, she’d raced over to try and stop him instead of going for help. That’s the last thing she remembered.  It seemed all she’d done was get them both landed in hot water.

“Thene?  Where the hell are we?” Sabine demanded as she sat up.  Her eyes took in the scene in the basement in horror and Athena knew what she must have looked like when she first saw the girls all chained up. They both yanked on their restraints, Athena’s hands were chained together and to the same pipe that Sabine’s feet were chained to.  No amount of tugging was going to get them to break; they’d have to think of something else.

Athena studied the girls a little more closely.  Their clothes were ragged and torn, their hair limp and greasy.  Some of them, their ribs were poking out.  These girls had been trapped for quite some time and obviously had not been cared for in any way.  The cuts and gashes were in serious jeopardy of getting infected if they didn’t get medical attention soon.

“I have no idea.  But we need to get the fuck out of here, we all do.” One of the girls off to the right let out a humorless laugh.

“Good luck with that.  There’s two of them you know.  One just doesn’t give a shit about us and the other one is far too fucking interested in us. They’re insane, both of them.  Crazy fucking fuckheads.”

“Well I’d prefer the term, slightly unhinged, but to each their own I suppose.” A man’s voice answered as two feet came into view on the stairway directly in front of Sabine and Athena.  Once he got to the bottom, she saw that he was tall, well built and wearing jeans and a black t-shirt.  His facial features were a mystery due to the ski mask pulled over his face.  He stopped a few feet away from them and crouched down so that they were eye level.  His were a light brown from what she could see but that was the only identifying feature she could make out due to the mask.  The fact that he seemed so at ease with what they were doing in this basement of horrors sent real terror through Athena’s bones.  There didn’t seem to be a lick of remorse or regret in him.

“Why are we here?” Sabine asked, always the one to jump straight to the point.

“Why?  That’s an interesting question and not one anyone has asked before.  Usually it’s been, when can I go home or why won’t you let me go.  So you’ve intrigued me with your inquisition there, gorgeous.  I think I’ll show you though, instead of tell you.” He rose to his feet once more and from the back of his jeans withdrew a large, menacing looking knife. Athena sucked in her breath, and kept her eyes glued to the blade, fear sliding through her over the thought of just what he planned on doing to show them why they were there.

Instead of slicing into them like she’d been afraid he was going to do, he walked over to the girl that had spoken to her and called them insane.

“You know, I don’t think I liked your tone earlier, sugar.  You had some not so nice things to say about me and my partner to our two lovely new guests. That was rather rude, don’t you think?”

“I’m sorry.  I’m s—s—sorry. It won’t happen again.  Please, just please don’t cut me again.  It hurts so bad,” she begged, shrinking away as far she could by her restrained hands.

“Oh, now don’t you fret.  I’m not going to cause you any pain at all,” he reassured her. Athena could hear her sigh of relief from across the room but it was quickly cut off by echoing screams as the man raised the knife and slashed her throat open, splaying blood everywhere. The girl slumped forward into the man and he coated his hands with the crimson liquid.

“See, bet you didn’t even feel a thing.”

C
IAN HADN’T SEEN Athena all day since she’d ran into him in the OR and seen more than she should have.  Since then, she seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth and taken Sabine with her.  It was a mystery and he was starting to get concerned as it wasn’t like her to disappear in the middle of a shift.  His girl was responsible and level-headed and cared too much about her patients to do something like that.
His girl?
Since when had he started referring to her as his girl?

He headed to the interns’ locker room to once again see if they were there, disappointed when all he found was the other three.  Fuckface whatever his name was, Clarence and Oscar were standing around chatting, getting ready to call it a day.

“Have you guys seen Athena and Sabine lately?” he asked, hating that he needed to, but not having any other choice.

“You know, I haven’t seen either of them since this morning, now that you mention it,” Clarence replied, scratching his head.  Oscar also said no and Fuckface just shrugged.

“That’s not an answer,” Cian told him, stepping farther into the locker room.

“Look, I don’t stick my nose in other people’s business okay?  If those two girls want to go riding off with some creepy looking dude, that’s their deal and I want no part of it.  I’m here to do my job and that’s it,” Dick told him, starting to walk around him to head for the door.

Cian’s arm shot out and grabbing him by the throat, slammed him against the wall.  “What the fuck are you talking about?  Riding off with who?  What creepy guy?” he demanded. He applied more pressure when Dick refused to answer.  His face turned red and his eyes started to bug out before he nodded, indicating that he would talk.  Cian loosened his grip but still held him firmly in place.

“Spill it,” he ordered him.

“I happened to be walking by the front entrance when I saw Sabine in the back of some dude’s car and Athena draped all of the same guy climbing in the front. The guy was wearing some kind of a hat; I couldn’t really see his face from how far away I was but I thought it was odd. It looked like a winter hat and we sure as hell don’t need to be wearing those in this heat. Anyways, he helped her in and then they sped off and I went on with my business.”

“He helped her in the car from the
driver’s side?
And he was wearing some kind of a winter mask?  What time was this at?”

“I don’t know.  I guess it was around noon.”

“Noon?!  That was six hours ago and you didn’t tell anybody!  The guy was wearing a fucking ski mask; you shit for brain idiot!” Disgusted he shoved Dick towards the door.  “Go to the nurses’ station and get them to call the police.  Now.  Tell them two women have been abducted from Lincoln Hospital and we suspect the serial killers are involved.  Move it!” he yelled when Dick hesitated, glaring at him until he stumbled out the door.  Cian’s head swam with a thousand different scenarios as panic gripped him.  Why the fuck hadn’t he noticed she was missing sooner?  Where the hell would that sick bastard have taken her?  If anything happened and he lost her...his heart couldn’t bear to think of what could happen to her.  He was going to get her back.  He had to.

“You.” He pointed to Clarence.  “I’ve heard things about you.  That you’re good with computers.  Can you track Athena’s phone?”

“Um...I can try.  But only if she still has it on,” Clarence clarified, not wanting to commit to something he might not be able to do.

“Good, let’s go, we need to move fast.  They’ve already had them for hours.” He shuddered at the thought of what might have happened to Athena.  If they’d harmed even one hair on her head...

“In here,” he ushered both Clarence and Oscar into his office.  Clarence immediately jumped on the computer and Cian rattled off the number of her cell phone.  He stared at the screen expectantly, hoping something would magically pop up that would tell him her whereabouts.

“Her phone is off,” Clarence told him, cowering in case he decided to take the news out on him.  “But wait.  I might be able to get a signal off her last known tower ping.” His fingers flew over the keys as he tapped away.  It all looked like gibberish to Cian but every now and then, he made a small grunt that sounded like it might be good news.

“Well?” he prodded, unable to take it anymore.

“Shhh, give me a minute,” Clarence ordered and then froze.  “Uh, sir.  Give me a minute, sir.  Please?”

“Yeah, yeah, just hurry the fuck up.”

Ten minutes later, just as Cian was ready to strangle the fuck out of Clarence, he looked up with a grin.

“I got an address.  I pinged the last closest location and from that I cross referenced who in the area rented properties recently and only came up with one hit.  421 53rd St.  Rented to a Dr. Daniels three weeks ago.  This has to be the place.” Clarence announced triumphantly.

“Great.  Call the cops and tell them,” he said as he ran out the door.  He was frantic to get to her, waiting for the police was not an option.  There’s no way they would go in there guns blazin’, but he sure as fuck would.  His only priority was Athena and getting her out safely, everyone else was the cops’ responsibility.

Pulling up to the condo, he leaped from the car and went to sprint up the condo’s front steps, only to collide with another man.  Each stepped back and glared at the other.

“Who the fuck are you?” they asked each other at the same time and then frowned.

“I’m Gabe Thornton.  I don’t think you want to go in there.  This house is not what you think.”

“I’m Dr. Cian O’Reilly.  And I sure as fuck am going in there.  My woman is in there and I need to get her out and to safety.” The two men regarded each other and deciding that each wasn’t the bad guy, backed down a bit.

“I’m here for Marcus Drake,” Gabe told him.

“I don’t know who that is, I’m here for Athena and Sabine.  They’re being held in there.”

Gabe nodded.  “Probably by Marcus.  Look, I’ll have your back in there if you’ll have mine, just don’t get
in my way when I kill that son-of-a-bitch.”

“Agreed.  Don’t get in mine if I kill anyone that’s laid a hand on my woman.”

The two shook hands and approached the door together.  “Cops will be here soon.  Whatever we’re gonna do, we have maybe ten minutes before they’re all over this place,” Cian told him.

“Got it.  Let’s do this.”

Cian kicked in the door and the two separated, each searching rooms on either side of the front entrance.  When they came up empty, the reunited in the hallway and Gabe signaled that he was going upstairs while Cian took the kitchen and other lower rooms.  When they still came up empty-handed several minutes later, he began to panic thinking that Clarence had been all wrong about the address.

Gabe waved him over and pointed and that’s when he spotted the door to the basement.  It was reinforced with several locks on the outside which was a dead giveaway that something was down there the occupants of the house didn’t want getting free.

They had a silent argument of who was going first, eventually have to resort to Rock, Paper, Scissors.  Gabe won, much to Cian’s dismay and he descended the stairs first, with Cian taking up the rear.

Halfway down the stairs, they heard the screams and cries. Nothing could have prepared them for the scene before their eyes.  A half dozen women were being held captive; some suspended from the ceiling by chains, others on the floor with longer chains attached to their hands or feet.  All were covered in multiple cuts and gashes and looked like they hadn’t been fed in weeks.  There was a commotion over in the left corner and glancing over, Cian spotted a man towering over Athena and Sabine, attempting to drag an unconscious Sabine away while Athena tried to fight him off.