Chapter Seventeen

Lightning cracked through the morning sky, its proximity bolting me upright in bed.  Clouds hovered ominously as I looked out the window; it was a good day to stay home. The double dose of laxatives I’d given the priest would supply the perfect excuse of some sort of intestinal bug.

I reached for the phone and punched in Father Xavier’s number, but the phone was silent. No dial tone. Did I forget to pay the bill? I fumbled through my purse for the flip phone and called the number, thankful when it went straight to voice mail.

It was going to be a long day, but Rosie and I would have our chat, and hopefully she’d forgive my deception. But if last night’s noise from the neighboring room was any indication, Rosie wouldn’t be waking anytime soon. Or ever. The girl had been drunker than a skunk when she came into the apartment. And of course they hadn’t gone to sleep right away, if they even had gone to bed. Was the guy still here? I hoped not.

My stomach rumbled and I walked to the kitchen, pouring some cereal into a bowl as I took note of syrup-soaked pancakes stuck to plates on the table. I needed to have a chat with Rosie. Deciding that the mess was too much to deal with at the moment, I carried the bowl to my computer. I was sure somewhere on the Internet was an article about some child star gone wild.

“Why, good morning, Lily,” the familiar voice said from behind me as I read about the young actress who was arrested for the umpteenth time. My hand trembled and spilled cereal onto my pajama bottoms. I collected the puffed rice from my pants and sopped the milk up with a paper towel.

Whose voice was it? I racked my brain, trying to place it. I sat slack-jawed in the chair as soon as I put a face with the voice.

“Running late today, are we?” Mad Max said, his tone unfriendly.

“Actually, no. I called in sick. Think I caught Father Xavier’s bug. Everything’s been running right through me,” I answered. It was probably too much information, but I groaned for effect.

He gave a condescending stare as he stood in silence for several moments. “I don’t think so. You slept the entire night and I haven’t heard the toilet flush once this morning.”

“Do you typically spend your time listening for flushing toilets, Max?” Not wanting to alert him to my terror, I turned back to the computer screen.

He laughed. “You may think you can lie to us, but you’ll pay dearly for what you’ve done. Where’s the book?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answered, my heart pounding through my ribcage.

“I believe you do. I’ll give you ten minutes to produce it or your sister dies,” he said flatly. “I’d suggest you get off the fucking computer right now.”

Not wanting him to think he had me rattled, I opted to finish reading my article. I clicked on another link and was halfway through the article when he rushed at me, wrapping his hands around my neck.

My eyes bulged and tongue protruded as he jerked me out of the chair. My hands rose in a panic to pry his fingers away from me. My fingernails dug into his flesh but he did not falter. His grip tightened and gurgles of nausea lurched within me as I flailed my arms and legs to escape him.

“Where’s the fucking book?” he sneered. “We know you have it. You can make this easy or hard, but one way or another I’ll get it back from you.” He maintained his hold around my neck but relaxed it enough so I could talk.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My stomach heaved from the near strangulation, and I tried to keep it together. My safety was contingent upon the journal staying hidden. Once he had it in his possession, I would be expendable.

“Don’t play games with me. We have you on video placing it and a few other things into your backpack.”

“You’re nuts. I don’t have anything of yours.”

He shook his head, his tongue clicking in a taunt. “Not the right answer. Since you obviously don’t understand the question, let me give you another one to ponder. What do you think I did to Rosie while you were sleeping?” He released me, and I fell to my knees gasping for air as cereal made its way up my throat.

Mind over matter. Not wanting him to see me weak, I forced the food back down.

I could put on a facade when it came to my life, but the mere mention of Rosie crashed me back to reality. I couldn’t play games when it concerned her. Max had me right where he wanted with those words, and his smirk acknowledged his awareness of my concession.

Sucking in air, I walked over to my book bag and unzipped it while Max sneered that he’d already searched through the bag. I reached into it as he drove a fist against my back. He spared no mercy with the hit, his knuckles delivering a sharp enough blow to send pain radiating throughout my lower back. I stumbled to the floor, falling atop the bag, as I fumbled frantically for anything that might help me.

“Get up.” He kicked at my ribs, but a roll to the right protected me from any breakage. “You’re wasting time while Rosie dies.”

“As if you give a damn about her. You’re pathetic.” Finding what I was searching for, I clambered off the floor. His laughter filled the room as he saw what was in my hand.

“Dial it, bitch, and you’ll both be dead before the police can get here.” His words chilled me, but the surprise on his face offered a little hope.

“Then bring it.” I cocked my head. “The Order will be so impressed when you come back empty-handed and have this place crawling with cops. I’ll bet there’s a special award for that.”

And bring it he did. He launched himself at me, aiming for my right hand. I brought my hand to my chest and held tightly to the one thing that could save me. He stood behind me, and his left hand gripped the right side of my neck while his right wrapped around my forehead.

“Drop the phone,” he ordered as he twisted my head sharply.

I resisted the urge to panic as the man kept twisting. Much harder and he would snap it, but I needed him closer to me.

“Drop the damn phone,” he yelled again, kicking the back of my knee.

“It’s not a cell phone, asshole,” I said as I swung my arm behind me and lifted the gadget to his abdomen. I held it there while pushing the power button. “It’s a stun gun.”

Mad Max gave a few violent shakes and fell, hitting his head on the coffee table. He thudded onto the floor and blood reddened the tiles beneath him.

I needed to check on Rosie, but how long would he stay down? I couldn’t take a chance on him being the die-hard villain. He had to be dealt with right away. I grabbed some packing tape from the utility drawer and rolled him onto his side. His eyes were closed but he was still breathing. I resisted the urge to kick him and re-stun him in favor for expediency in binding his hands.

“If you’ve harmed her in any way, you will suffer immensely.”

I ran to Rosie’s room, scared of what may have happened to her in the night. Clothes littered her floor and she lay under a sheet, reeking of alcohol and cigarettes. I raced over to her and yanked off her sheet as I yelled for her to wake up.

She didn’t rouse.

I checked for a pulse and found one. She was breathing, but still she didn’t respong to my screams of her name. I grabbed her shoulders and lifted her off the bed as I tried to shake her awake. Had he drugged her? Or was she just hung-over?

“Wha-, go away,” she muttered. “Lemme sleep.”

“Are you okay, Rosie? Did you take anything last night?”

“About seven or eight inches lotsa times. Lemme sleep.”

Vomit. That let me know she was probably okay, so I rushed to my room and called Jack’s number. “We have a major problem. I need you to come over here right away.”

“I’m on the way to the office,” he replied.

“I don’t care. Your class isn’t for another hour. And let’s just say that I’ve had a really bad morning and there’s a bit of green in my apartment right now.”

“I’ll be right over,” he said before hanging up the phone.

Mad Max began to moan and writhe on the floor. His eyes opened in a plea, but I answered it with a smirk. He was now at my mercy and I had plenty of questions for him. He wasn’t going to be let off the hook so easily. I sopped up his blood with some toilet paper, cursing him for messing up my floor, and flushed the evidence down the toilet.

The doorbell rang and Jack rushed inside. He pulled me close, his eyes widening as I winced.

“Your neck.” He touched what I knew was redness on its way to becoming a bruise. “Are you okay?”

“I’m sore, but alive thanks to my dad’s paranoia.” I shifted my attention to Max, whose moans were loudening. He wanted to speak, but at the moment, he was a fly buzzing around my head.

Jack looked down at the man writhing on the floor. “Dunn Meadow is going to be eerily quiet today, don’t you think, Lily?”

“Very quiet.” I nodded as Max’s eyes widened with terror. “It might even be quiet tomorrow. I’m thinking this’ll be something for the history books—The Day Dunn Meadow Was Silenced. Though it sounds more like a horror flick.”

“Do remind me not to anger you, Lily. He’s nearly twice your size.” He laughed. “I certainly was not expecting you to have the man fully bound when I got here. Any idea on how to smuggle him out of here?”

“We’ll just walk him out. There aren’t many students living here right now, and if you back your Explorer up to the side entrance, it will be easy.”

As Jack and I lifted Max from the floor, his eyes went wild, but he didn’t struggle. He knew something was in store for him, but he wasn’t willing to die fighting.

That was the difference between the two of us. Where he went down without a fight, I wouldn’t stop until my heart gave out.

We shoved him into the hatchback, and Jack kissed me, his breath tasting of peppermint and coffee.

“Why, exactly, did Max do this to you?” he asked as he climbed into his seat.

“He wasn’t happy about something I took from Father Xavier,” I replied. “I’ll tell you more about it tonight. I need to get back to Rosie and you need to get to work.”

“Please be careful, love.” He shifted the car into gear. “We’ll deal with him tonight.”

I didn’t ask what he was going to do with Mad Max. A part of me hoped that whatever he did involved needles, clamps, or shining an ultra-bright light into his eyes for a few days. But I knew better. Torture was something Lily the Greenie would do. It wasn’t something Jack the Professor would ever consider. I figured that more than likely, Max was going to spend the day tied up in Jack’s place and tonight, we would ask our questions. If he answered my questions to my liking, we’d escort him to the police station and demolish the church while we were at it.

No matter what was going to happen, I knew that my apartment probably wouldn’t be the safest place for the day. If they’d sent Max here, it would be only a matter of time before someone else came looking for him. I didn’t want to be in the apartment when the next person came looking.

Rosie was going to be pissed, but we had to leave.

“Rosie, wake up. We need to get out of here.” I poked, prodded, and shook her. “Come on. I’m in some major trouble.”