Undone (14 page)

My mind held on to every memory of her through the pain, because I was afraid I’d never see her again. When I died, I wanted her to be the last thing I saw.

But they stretched it out, and I didn’t die.

When they weren’t working on me, I knew they were working on Eli. I heard the screams.

I tried to open a portal or to somehow get through the wall. I even tried to heal myself.

Nothing worked.

Then I woke up at some point, morning or night, I couldn’t be sure anymore, and things were quiet.

The door to my cell opened, and two guys in uniform came in and picked me up off the floor. I didn’t bother to struggle.

They carried me into Eli’s room and dumped me on the floor next to him. His face was swollen and bloody. His clothes were stained and stuck to him. I pushed myself up to lean against the wall, and I touched something on the floor. I picked it up and brought it close to my face. It was a tooth, root and all.

It made my own mouth hurt in anticipation of what might be coming next. It didn’t exactly surprise me, though.

The door opened again and Constantine came in. “I wanted to give you both another chance to change your mind,” he said. He waved into the hallway. Then he looked at Eli. “If you don’t work for me, I will hurt everyone you care about.”

“I don’t care about anyone,” Eli said.

Constantine smiled. “I hoped that’s what you would say.”

The two guys in uniform were back. This time they had a man in a suit. His arms were restrained, he had duct tape over his mouth. I didn’t recognize him, but clearly Eli did. He looked away.

“On your knees,” Constantine said, forcing the man to the ground. Then he said to Eli, “This is your only chance. Help me or I’ll kill your family.”

“I told you,” Eli said. “I don’t have any family.” Then he looked away.

If I didn’t know him, I’d think he really didn’t care about this guy. But I did know him, and I could see from the way he clenched his jaw that he was bluffing.

They had his stepfather, the man his mother had married.

One of the guards ripped the duct tape off his mouth, and the man said, “Please,” right before Constantine shot him in the head.

I waited for them to bring in Derek or my mother.

I didn’t know if I could let them die because of me. Actually, I did know. I couldn’t. My father, his family, Ian, Stacee, anyone . . . Any person they brought in, it didn’t even matter if I knew them. I wouldn’t let anyone die because of me.

They didn’t bring my family in, though. It was worse.

I
stopped breathing when I saw her.

I knew she was real and not some hallucination because her dark hair was matted to the side of her head and stained with dried blood. Her left eye was swollen shut. Her bare arms were covered with bruises. Her face was black-and-blue, and her lip was bleeding. She had put up a fight when they tried to take her.

Janelle.

This wasn’t the kind of reunion I’d imagined.

She didn’t look at me. She kept her head down, chin to her chest. The two uniformed guards held her up, their hands under her armpits, her feet dragging behind her. There were bruises around her wrists from whatever restraints they’d used. She didn’t make a sound. The only reason I knew she was conscious was that she flinched when Constantine reached for her.

“Stop,” I said, my voice hoarse.

I looked at Janelle and silently begged her to look at me.

Constantine ran his hands through Janelle’s hair. “Your friend might not have any family, but you . . .” He grabbed her chin, forcing her head up, and the sound that came out of her mouth stabbed me in the heart. It was the kind of sound a cornered animal might make, something pleading.

I tried to stand, and one of the guards grabbed me and threw me back to the ground. I strained against him, struggling to get up again.

Constantine pushed Janelle’s hair back from her face, and I could see it was wet with tears.

“If you don’t work for me . . .” he said.

“Stop,” I said. I didn’t need to hear whatever he was going to say next.

He raised his gun and pointed it to her head.

“I’ll do it!” I shouted.

He paused, turning his head toward me.

I swallowed, digesting what that would mean. Pulling people from their worlds, bringing them here to this asshole, for whatever he wanted with them. These people wouldn’t have Janelle to save their lives, to give them something to look forward to. They wouldn’t have a best friend like Eli or even Reid, guys who had their faults but were always loyal. They would be alone.

But I looked at Janelle, bruised and broken, and I couldn’t bear to let anything else happen to her.

I couldn’t let him kill her.

“I’ll work for you,” I added. “Just let her go.”

Read on for a sneak peek at the sequel to
Unraveling
,

S
ome days are so perfect, they just don’t seem real.

They’re the days when you wake up and aren’t tired, when the sun is shining and the breeze kicks up from the ocean, keeping you from getting too hot or too cold, and everything you do goes right. Like you’re inside of a movie with your own soundtrack, where you’re so happy that you can’t help just spontaneously breaking into a smile. Some days are like magic.

But I haven’t had one of those days in a long time.

So long, it feels like maybe I never did. In fact, when I’ve been up for eighteen hours, letting Cecily boss me around in an old snack bar that she converted into a kitchen—one that might be a hundred degrees—it feels like maybe perfect days are a lie.

“What are you doing?” Cecily says, scolding me. “That’s never going to work.”

“My idea, not work? That’s shocking.” I make a big show of rolling my eyes. “Come up with a better idea and we’ll try it.” I almost add that we don’t need popcorn, but I keep my mouth shut. I can only push her so far. The wrath of Cecily when plans go awry is something I’m trying to avoid.

It’s movie night at Qualcomm.

About a month ago, Cecily decided that a movie night was just the thing Qualcomm needed. It would give people something to look forward to, and with the right equipment it was something we could actually get done. She made Kevin and me spend a weekend going through the wreckage of every movie theater in San Diego, looking for the right projection equipment and an assortment of movies we could show.

So now we have a little more than thirteen hundred people seated on what used to be the Chargers football field—with more watching from the seats. Blankets are laid out, people are huddled together, and Cecily has
It’s a Wonderful Life
cued up on the projector. I had argued with her choice of that one—it’s not like much going on around here could be called wonderful—but my arguments had gone down in flames, and Kevin didn’t help matters since he had backed her up, hoping to win her over.

The only snag in her plan right now is the popcorn.

The generator let us use the microwave to pop over half of the bags we found scrounging around the city, but it started taking its toll on our power. Even Cee wasn’t going to argue that popcorn was more important than lights. So now I’m using a couple of old pans and a wood-burning stove.

Because I’m thinking of him, Kevin Collins pushes through the door with a wide smile for Cecily. In a surprising and I’ll admit impressive move on his part, he got his GED and enlisted in the Marines a couple of months ago. “Lady J!” he shouts as a few of the guys in his unit come in behind him. “We’ve come for you to feed us.”

I’d like to say the whole enlisting thing made him grow up, but he’s the same as ever.

I ignore Kevin. I’m good at it.

Cecily, who has only her own agenda on her mind, beams at him. “Oh, you’re here, perfect,” she says, piling bags of popcorn into the guys’ arms before they have a chance to speak. “Start with the people in the back since they’re farthest from the screen. And make sure everyone takes a small handful and passes it down. We have about one bag for every fifteen or so people; no one gets their own.”

One of the guys rolls his eyes—he’s obviously here as a favor because poor Kevin has it bad for Cecily.

Kevin bows with a flourish. “Your wish shall be done.”

I have to force myself to keep from snorting at the ridiculousness that is happening right in front of me.

Before he leaves, Kevin looks at me. “Hurry up, woman. If we have to wait for you we’ll never get to see the movie.”

Unable to control her laughter, Cecily pushes Kevin out the door, and the universe finally rewards me, because the popcorn finally starts to pop.

“So this thing with Kevin . . .” I say once he’s gone. Every guy has a thing for Cee—even Alex had a huge crush on her. Alex, my best friend, the one who told me he wasn’t going to date anyone until college because he didn’t want to have to introduce a girl that he liked to his mother unless he knew she could handle it. Alex, who will never date anyone. Alex, who’s gone because of me.

I swallow those thoughts down, despite the tightness in my throat, and focus on Cecily. I want her to be happy.

She blushes but doesn’t say anything.

“He is pretty cute,” I add. He’s also immature and drives me a little out of my mind, but I can’t deny that he’s nice to look at.

Cecily laughs and shakes her head. “He is.” Then she pauses and adds, “And he’s funny, too, you know? Like super funny. Every time I see him, he makes me crack up about something. Plus, I can’t help being surprised at how thoughtful he is. He always does really nice little things for me.”

She says it like there’s a “but” coming.

“So, what’s the problem?” I laugh a little, but Cecily doesn’t join in.

“This is terrible. I mean, I kind of want to like him.” She sighs. “I just can’t. I mean, I don’t know. I guess he’s just not really my type.”

I know what she means. About wanting to like someone and just not being able to. Kevin’s tried to hook me up with half the guys in his unit, and then of course, there’s Nick. A date or even a little romance would be such a welcome distraction from everything going on, but all I see when I look at another guy is someone who’s not Ben Michaels.

Since the day he left, I’ve been looking everywhere for Ben. Remembering his dark brown eyes; the way his hair falls in his face; the way he reached out, touched my cheek, and pulled me into one last kiss; the way he took slow steps backward toward the portal, as if he didn’t really want to leave; the way he said my name and told me he loved me; and the way the portal swallowed him up and he disappeared.

But mostly I think about how he said,
I’ll come back for you
.

“Okay, don’t laugh,” Cecily says suddenly, doing me a favor and pulling me from thoughts I should be able to let go. “But I kind of have a thing for the bad boys, like from afar, but still. Give me a leather jacket, a devilish smile, a guy my parents wouldn’t approve of, and you know, someone who needs to be saved.”

Ben didn’t have the leather jacket or a devilish smile. But he was definitely the kind of guy my dad would’ve been wary of. And he did need to be saved.

Only I’d saved him, and now he was gone.