The Alphas Game - Complete Set (6 page)

Chapter9

The darkness is nothing short of depressing. The only company I’ve had so far has left, I wonder if I made him angry from discovering too much from the conversation. I would have been happy for any bit of conversation or a little bit of light to be shown into my dark hole. I could feel the wetness starting to form around my cuffs and knew that I was bleeding from being chained up for so long. The cuffs were a bit too tight, no doubt some way to convince me to talk and they had been digging into my flesh since I had been here. When I tried to do anything, the fact that my hands were tied together made everything, including using the facilities more difficult. My stomach was aching with hunger and I wondered how many hours I had been held down here. I knew that if I had been given food I would have eaten it, no matter how difficult it was going to be with my hands tied up.

She didn’t know how long she had been down there when the walls began to shake. It felt like an earthquake, but there weren’t earthquakes in this part of the country, that is assuming that she still was in Tampa. “What the hell happened?” She asked herself the question, there was no one there to answer her.

When the pieces of metal and dry wall started to fall on her head and shoulders she knew that this was probably serious. “What’s happening?” She tried to peer up towards the ceiling, but still couldn’t see anything. She was rewarded with a large cloud of dust falling directly on her face, landing large bits in her eyes. “Damn it.” She cursed, trying to rub at her eyes. She didn’t have a place to rinse them, unless she counted the foul smelling toilet water, and she didn’t think that the infection was worth it. “I have to get out of the way.” She thought of only one place to hide and did her best to climb under the bed. It didn’t work very well. “This is easier when your hands aren’t tied together.” She groaned the complaint as she managed to jam most of her body into a space that wasn’t high enough to hold her entire volume. “I’m not fat, why can’t I fit under here.” She wished that it was a normal bed, and not some metal bunk that was used for prisoners, she might have been able to hide more efficiently.

She waited; it took a long time for her to start hearing any noise. She figured that the soundproof barrier had been cracked by whatever had happened to the building that she was in. “I’ve got to be in the basement, everything seems to be coming from the roof.” She noted the fact as she waited for the sound of rescue to come. It felt like an eternity before she could hear some of the debris starting to move above her. She hoped that help was on the way and the fact that she could hear them must mean that they could hear her. She climbed out from under the bed and steadied her voice. “Hello!” She screamed at them, hoping that they knew there was someone alive in there.

Kevin heard the tiny noise first. It was hard to discern over the sound of people trying to search the wreckage for survivors. “Be quiet. I think I hear something.” He called over the crowd and everyone grew as still as they could be.

Rosie heard the noise stop. “Help me! I’m in the basement, I think.” She tried to make her voice carry as well as she could, but it wasn’t working very well. She hoped that they had heard her.

Grey moved closer as the response started. He was certain that he heard Rosie’s voice, but the murmur started before anyone could translate what she was trying to say. The dull roar of the crowd told them that they had found someone alive and that they could hear them yelling. The buzz was quiet, placed in whispers between attempts to listen for more shouts, but they couldn’t hear anything. The woman wasn’t responding again.

Rosie wasn’t responding because she noticed her clothes. She knew that she didn’t have a chance of getting her shirt on, but she might be able to wiggle into her pants. She started to work on them, occasionally shouting as the rescuers started to work their way down to her. It was taking a long time because they had to be careful not to collapse the entire building down on her head. She wiggled into her jeans with her hands still tied up and walked over to the small bed. The blanket on it was flannel, allowing her to rip holes in it fairly easily. She placed her head into the hole and made a kind of poncho, using her bound hands to help keep the cover down. “This will have to do for now.”

She called up again. “How long do you think it’s going to be?”

The question wasn’t answered right away, but when it was she wasn’t pleased at all. “It looks like it’s going to be at least an hour.”

“Can’t you get here any faster, the roof seems like it’s about to collapse.”

The voice that came back was Kevin’s. It made her shudder to hear it. “They’re worried that the roof might collapse if we move too quickly.” He was trying to comfort her, but it didn’t work. She knew that it wasn’t actually him who had kidnapped and questioned her. It was easy to tell the difference from the way the person talked, but it didn’t change the fact that his presence made her nervous. “Can you hide under anything?”

“I can fit part of my body under the bed that’s under here, but I can’t find cover for everything.”

“Get as much of you under cover as you can.” He told her, hoping that she would listen.

“I’m chained up, is there anything that we can do about that?” She asked, hoping that they could help her.

“Let me find out.” He said the words and she could almost hear him walking away to ask someone the question. She wondered why he didn’t just shout it at the others, but realized that it wasn’t important. Right now her life was the most important thing. He came back after a few minutes. “As soon as we get a crack opened up to you, we’re going to send down something to get into cuffs. Is there anything that you can tell us about them?”

“I can’t see anything, but I think that they’re pretty basic cuffs attached to a chain that’s hooked to a pole out of the ground. I don’t have anything that can help me.” As she spoke she noticed that a small filter of light seemed to appear from the ceiling. She squinted; the light appeared to be a lot brighter than it actually was because of the nearly total darkness that she had been in for the longest time. She tried to examine her cuffs, but was only able to see that they maintained the general shape of police issued cuffs. “They look like cop cuffs.”

“Are you getting some light in there?”

“Just a little.” Rosie told them, she was happy that her rescue was on the way, but it couldn’t come fast enough to make her happy. “Can you see me?”

“Not yet, but we think we know where you are. We’re going to lower a handcuff key on a string through the little hole so let us know if you see it.

She squinted, carefully looking for the key to come down, but she couldn’t see it, the light wasn’t good enough to see anything, but she was eventually able to hear the plink of metal on the concrete. She headed in that direction, carefully shuffling her feet, knowing that if she kicked it out of range it would be almost impossible to get it back. She felt the string first. It felt like a spider's web in her hair, just off to the side of her. She reached up and pulled on the string, knowing that it might be her only salvation. She pulled on the string and was able to find the key and unlock the cuffs. “I’ve got it!” She sounded happier, like the little victory was making this whole thing better.

“Have you eaten?”

“No, how long have I been gone?”

“As far as we figure, it’s been about a day, maybe a little less.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, we don’t know what time you were taken last night.” It was hard to have this conversation with Kevin, shouting through a tiny hole that was the only source of light and fresh air, knowing that he was free. Something in her knew it wasn’t his fault, but her mind couldn’t make her emotions, or her anger with him stop.

This wasn’t the time to discuss that now, however. “I don’t know. I went to sleep last night and I woke up here.”

“Do you want us to send you down some food?”

“Some water would be nice.”

“We’re already working on that.” Kevin assured her. “We need to make the hole a little bigger.”

“Patience is not a virtue that I have much of. You guys better hurry.” Rosie felt her foot start to tap as she put her shirt on, her hands and wrists were still raw and bleeding, but there wasn’t a whole lot she could do about that.

Within ten minutes they had sent down some food and water to her. She ate in the silent dark, appreciating the cheap slice of pizza and baby wipes to clean her wounds. The water made her feel a lot better, especially since she was able to rinse her hands off before she ate. The water was cool and refreshing when it crossed her parched lips.

“Do you think that you’ll be able to climb a ladder?”

She looked at her hands, wondering if they were capable of doing something like that. “I don’t know my hands are pretty beat up.”

“OK, then we are going to lower a harness in a few minutes to get you out of there.”

“Are you sure?”

“We’re going to pull you out, we’ve almost got a big enough hole in the ceiling cleaned out.” His voice was reassuring.

“Good, I can’t get out of here soon enough.” She shuddered. “I hate this place.”

Kevin’s voice grew soft; she could hear the tears hiding behind his confidence. “I know, baby, we’re going to get you out of there.”

She was pulled out successfully, able to finally see the light of day but she had to shield her eyes. It was just too bright for her. She was carried to an ambulance where she was greeted by Hope, Grey, and Kevin.

They gushed over her, happy that she had survived....

THE SAGA CONTINUES

The Alpha's Game

Episode 3

A Shifter Romance Serial By..

JJ JONES

Summary

They say that 2 is company and 3 is a crowd and that is exactly how Kevin is feeling with Grey sniffing around Rosie in more ways then one. It is not often Kevin has to deal with someone just as Alpha as himself that is for sure.

As the trio continue on their mission they do not realize the huge shock they could be in for once they find their target...

Chapter1

I’d be lying if I told you that I took much time off after my ordeal. I tried to relax, I really did. I knew how much it meant to Hope, the closest thing to family I had, but I just felt more comfortable getting back to work. It made me feel like my life wasn’t being turned upside down by the newest case that I had taken on. This case had taken over my life, but since I had been liberated I found myself unable to think about it , instead focusing on other things that I needed to do; paperwork and taxes, various things like that.  These were the things that Hope usually took care of, but I had to do something. I’ve tried my best to put the memories out of my mind, but I can still remember the darkness, the pure naked fear that I felt in that prison with no walls. My wrists are still healing and it makes everything hard to do, every movement of my wrists brings back a flood of memories along with the pain that I am feeling at the moment. The bandages didn’t help me forget about the voice in the darkness, Kevin’s voice. Even though I knew that it wasn’t him, because though  the physical nature of the vocal chords can be mimicked,  they couldn’t copy the way he spoke.

Rosie wasn’t in a good place. Hope knew it and did her best to stay close to her, but the psychic detective had had enough and sent the part  fairy woman away. In fact, everyone was doing their best to keep her close, trying to assist with her recovery. She didn’t want to be fussed over; it just served to remind her of the traumatic experience of being a prisoner in that dirty little basement. When people were  around too often she would snap and kick them out of her office or her house.

She was sitting in her living room, trying to find something to do. She felt the need to stay busy; the need to keep her mind occupied, trying to do something that didn’t make her think too much. The numbing sensation of rote work kept her mind where it needed to be. Her house was already clean; her paperwork had been long since finished. She was bored and the memories were flooding into her because there was nothing to occupy her. There was no one around, no one watching so she let herself cry. It wasn’t easy to feel the pain wash over her body. The sobs leaped with great force through her form, large hiccuping wails of pure agony. Her face grew wet with two pure streams of tears. The woman’s face grew darker with the pain and she let it out.

When it finished she would be lying to herself if she thought it didn’t make her feel better. The detective wiped her eyes and walked into the kitchen  to find a paper towel. The wetness of her face, supplied by her eyes and nose were going to be too much to use a tissue for. She felt almost human again, a little more ready to face the world.

The doorbell rang as she was depositing the sopping paper towels into the garbage pail. She knew that she needed to get ready to be back into the world. She drew in an uneasy breath and mentally prepared herself to face the unknown person on the other side of the door. It made her nervous; she didn’t want to go there.

Without saying a word, she made her way to the door. The peephole revealed a young man in a bike helmet and fingerless gloves. He had a box in his hands that obscured the logo on his gray shirt. It didn’t matter. She recognized the uniform. A lot of packages came to her from that particular messenger. Many of her clients and contacts used them and she’d  made friends with a great many of the delivery men and women.

“It’s Joe.” Rosie smiled to herself as she opened the door, ready to say hello to her friend.

“Hey, I’ve got a package for you.” Joe smiled at her. A flirting glint appeared in his eye. He had always had a little crush on her. “Somebody likes you today.”

“Thanks, do you know who it’s from?” Rosie let him flirt; she knew that if she wanted to maintain her business she needed to stay nice to her contacts. It was the reason that Hope put up with Tobias, and it was the reason why she accepted the nice treatment from men like Joe.

“Nope, they didn’t leave a name.”

“That’s pretty normal.” Rosie commented. Many of the people she worked with didn’t want their names out there. That’s why this messenger service was so well liked. They didn’t check for anything from deliveries, instead made sure that the client could be kept as private as possible. They would deliver messages or packages, keeping both sides confidential. It was fairly well known that if you walked into their office you didn’t have to know where the person you want it delivered to lived or worked. They would do their best to find the person, and they had many people on file.

“I bet. Hey, were you the one on the news?” He asked, his face growing a little more concerned.

“She did look an awful lot like me, didn’t she?” Rosie denied it, and because she was a victim they hadn’t released her name. She  wanted to stay out of the news.

“She sure did; just like you.” Joe smiled and deposited the package into her hands, holding the door for her to place it on the entry table. She pulled out five dollars and handed it to him. It was a normal tip to her and one of the major reasons she always made sure to have cash on hand. It was impossible to tip delivery men without cash. “You don’t have to do that,” Joe added. “They included a tip.”

“Take it, you deserve it.” She always appreciated his honesty. He walked down the hallway, whistling about the extra money as he shoved it into his pocket.

“I wonder who sent it.” Rosie frowned as a shudder ran up  her spine. There was a sudden chill in the air and later she would regret not paying attention to the sensation. “Pull yourself together, it’s just a box.” No matter how she tried to talk herself out of the feeling, it persisted, telling her that there was something terribly wrong with this package. She paused, unable to control the shaking in her limbs. People would think that it was crazy, but it was known that  she knew about objects and the energy that they possessed. It was the basis of her entire career, so she was aware that there was something wrong with the box.

Her hand was shaking as she cut the top. Inside there was a large lump of plastic. The plastic was almost clear, but there were so many layers that she couldn’t see what was contained in the middle of the excessive packing materials. She shifted it out of the plastic, moving some of the top layers out of the way until its secrets were revealed to her.

The moment that she saw what was inside of it, she recoiled in terror letting loose a scream that belonged more in a horror movie than in her life. It didn’t matter that she had the feeling that forewarned her,  it was a terrible sight, one designed to bring great terror into her heart. It didn’t take long for the knocking to start, but she didn’t pay attention. Her eyes were locked on the contents of the package; the rest of the world didn’t exist, only the horror that had been delivered, literally to her doorstep. The pounding continued, not stopping until she finally recognized the sound and opened the door, not even paying attention to who was on the other side. She left the door open, never taking her eyes off the wide-open eyes and gaping mouth trapped in an eternal scream  in the box.

“What happened?” The voice was breathless and slightly panicked before he had even laid eyes on the situation. “Are you OK?”

She couldn’t get the words to form, instead she pointed and stammered, identifying the source of her anguish. He looked on, seeing the face, but not recognizing it. “Do you know him? Who is he?” He kept his head, his law enforcement instincts immediately kicking in. She still couldn’t force herself to respond. He knew that she would have to calm down before she could tell him anything so he pulled out his phone and dialed his work, knowing that this had to be reported. “Don’t touch it, I’m calling this in. Can you tell me what happened?” He put his hand on her back, a comforting motion that seemed to help while he told people to get down to her house as soon as possible.

Rosie started to pull herself together, finally recognizing the man that had walked into her home. “When did you get here?” Grey’s black hair and solid form made her feel a little better.

“Just after you screamed,” he told her.  She could tell that he felt a little guilty about it, but he didn’t regret his decision. “We’ve been watching to see if anyone shows up here again. Kevin’s at your office.”

“You’ve been watching me?” For the moment, her anger allowed her to focus on something other than the severed head in the box.

“We thought that someone would show up and try something, and we didn’t want you to get hurt.” He immediately regretted the last part of it.

“I can take care of myself.” It was a loaded assertion and she knew it. He could point out the fact that she had already been kidnapped and the fact that she was obviously being targeted by whoever was doing this. If he did any of these things, however,  he would have been forced to deal with her temper and frustration about the truth.

“Look, I know you can take care of yourself.” He was choosing his words carefully. “We were hoping that we could catch them if they come around again.”

Her eyes narrowed. Suddenly she realized that she had been tricked too often in the past. It  was rather convenient for him to arrive at this time. “How do I know it’s you?” The recent events were making her a little more cautious, but Hope called it paranoid.

He sighed. He hadn’t been expecting this, but it didn’t’ surprise him either. “When we were alone, cleaning out your office I kissed you.” It was the only thing that he could think about and should be something that only they knew about. The kiss lingered back on her lips for a moment and she brought her hand up to brush the tingling sensation away.

“That will have to do for now.” A sigh escaped her lips. She really didn’t know him well enough to have anything else they shared that would allow him to identify himself. She accepted it and they moved on to more important parts of the conversation.

“Now can you tell me anything about this?”

“I got a delivery. I know the guy. He delivers to me a lot.” She closed her eyes, trying to avoid identifying the person in the box. “His name is Joe. He’s a nice guy.” Picturing Joe’s face she couldn’t think of any clue that he knew about the contents of the box.

“Do you know him?”

“Yes, I mean he delivers to me a lot, but I don’t know a lot about him.”

“The man in the box?”

“No, Joe.”

“How much do you know about Joe?” He was being gentle.

“Not much, but he’s always nice.” Rosie was happy to talk about anything other than the head in the box.

It was time to ask the hard questions. Grey knew that he had to get the information out of her. She obviously  knew who was in the box, but she didn’t seem like she was ready to talk about it.

“Who is it?” He moved closer to the box, pointing at the package and drawing her attention back to it.

“It’s Tobias.” She started to shake again, unable to  face the truth. She didn’t want it to be him. No matter how much the man annoyed her and her secretary, the flirtatious  wererat  was pretty close to a friend. She could always count on him to bring her little tidbits of information that might help her on her cases. He  brought her more information over the years, sometimes at great risk, than anyone else that she had ever paid. She knew that he was a creepy guy who  would constantly ask Hope out, but it didn’t change the fact that he had been a good friend to her office and possibly to her.

“Who’s Tobias?”

She fought to keep herself together. “One of my contacts.” Her voice was shaking as she said the words. “My best contact.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’d recognize him anywhere.” The door was still open when Kevin arrived, rushing into the room to check out the situation. Grey brought him up to speed.

The werelion cursed. “Tobias, he helped us a lot with the case. He helped us find you.” He didn’t mention the fact that the wererat had been the one who  delivered the flowers that had given them the final lead. It wasn’t really important at that time, even though the thought did cross his mind. He walked over to the box, pulling a set of latex gloves out of his pocket. “There isn’t anything that I can see here.”

“We’ll have to take it in.”

“Crime scene should be here soon, they left at the same time as you.” Grey told his partner. Their previous argument had been pretty much forgotten since Rosie had been rescued. While their  friendship was still taking a while to repair,  they were finding that they could work together again, carefully trying to keep the detective off  the case, not that any more leads were showing up anyway.