“That’s a good dog,” I grunt, shifting my hold. She curls into me instinctively, whimpering. It breaks my heart. “Alright, let’s go!”
I glance over at Bane, whose borrowed Glock is pointed at Jack again, and back up out of the room. As soon as I’m in the hallway I turn tail and retrace my steps down the hall toward the elevator, my adrenaline provoked tunnel vision begins to fade and hysteria threatens to overwhelm me.
At the elevator bank I use the wall to prop up the dog so I can free a hand to smash the call button. As I do, I see Bane backing into the hallway with his gun still pointed back at the bikers in the room. He’s got mad skills at walking backwards in a hurry.
“Elevator open Red?” he calls.
“No,” I shout back, but then the bell dings and the door slides open. “Yes!”
“Get in, move to the side, and hold the door for me.”
I obey, and hear the sound of his footsteps pounding down the hall. He ducks and rolls into the elevator like he thinks he’s James Bond or something. I stare at him in a heap on the floor. Nothing happens for a moment except that we blink at each other.
“I thought you were in the same gang!” I cry. “Don’t you guys ever have normal conversations without drawing guns on each other?”
“Yeah we’re in the same fucking gang,” Bane shouts back, “But I told you, it’s complicated! Shut the door!” I hear more footsteps running down the hall. “Hurry up!”
“Shit,” I curse, struggling not to drop the dog and find the button. “Shit!”
“Shut the door shut the door shut the door!” Bane shouts.
There’s the boom of a gunshot and a metallic ping. Horrified, I look at a new hole in the elevator wall and let out a righteous scream.
“God damn it, out of the way,” Bane hollers. He jumps to his feet, knocking me to the side, and slams the palm of his hand on the door close button, firing blindly out of the elevator until the door finally slides shut.
As the elevator lifts, he flutters his lips in relief and turns to me to take the dog from my arms. “It’s okay,” he coos, “it’s okay girl.”
“They just shot at me!” I scream, punching the wall. “Your fucking gangster friends shot at me because of you and your big mouth! And all you can think about is the dog?”
“I was talking to both of you,” he says. “You’re both girls!”
Furious, I raise my hands to pull out my hair or his eyes or something, but I catch a look at Bane’s face and see that shit-eating grin again. Even Jenny seems to be smiling. In spite of myself, laughter bubbles through. Maybe it’s stress laughing. Or hysteria. I don’t know. Whatever it is, it completely breaks me down until I’m snorting and bent double and Bane is laughing too.
“You bastard,” I grunt.
Bane’s smirking and laughing at me, so I shove his arm playfully. Just like I’d shove Blake or Ava. I catch the intimacy of the gesture and abruptly halt. Bane is not my friend. He’s not my family. Why am I suddenly feeling and acting like he might be? My smile freezes and I step back away from him into the far corner of the elevator. The walls seem to be shrinking in on me.
“Hey, whoa, easy girl,” Bane says. “What’s going on? I’m talking to you now, Red. Still with me? Don’t flip out on me now. The bullet missed everybody. You’re ok, ok? I can only carry one wounded woman at a time. I need you to be ok.”
I lean my forehead against the cool metal and force myself to breathe nice and slow. “No, yeah, I’m fine.”
Too fine, I want to add. Getting too comfortable. Getting too used to being Bane’s new pet and going on little adventures in the Death Layer building together. One happy, twisted, fucked up little family.
By the time we’re safely locked and bolted back inside Bane’s studio suite, I can tell he’s worried sick about the dog. I spread a towel over the bed and he lays her out on top to inspect her wounds.
“Fuck,” he murmurs. “Hang in there, Jenny.” He whips a cell phone out of his pocket and shoots out a text message. “I’m going to have to take her in to see someone,” he explains. “I’d bring you, but you know, flight risk.”
My heart leaps to my throat. “You’re just going to leave me here?”
I’m not sure if I’m terrified or relieved at the prospect. If Bane leaves me alone, surely I can figure out a way to escape. My eyes are darting around the room just thinking of it—maybe the narrow window in the bathroom, maybe I can run down the stairwell again? Maybe I can find that shotgun of his and shoot my way out.
On the other hand, if Bane leaves I’d be alone in this awful place. What if someone found me by myself, unprotected? I know Bane’s saved me from rape once. While that’s not enough to make me trust him, exactly, it still makes him the closest thing I have to an ally. His voice plays through my head from that first night: I’m the best fucking thing that could have happened to you. I’m still not convinced that’s true, but it could have been worse.
Much worse.
“Hmm, you’re right. Leaving you alone is not gonna work.” Bane straightens and frames my hips with his hands, squaring me to face him. He probes me with his eyes, then chuckles and shakes his head. “Nope, I don’t trust you either. What a team.”
Fuck. Can he read my fucking mind?
Bane gives me a little shove so that I stumble onto the bed next to the dog. The cell phone is in his hands again and he’s texting up a storm. “I’ll have him come here.”
I watch him put away the phone and stare at his dog with lonely, angry eyes. Something stirs in me, pity maybe. A man who loves a dog that much can’t be all bad.
“Is it true?” I ask. “What you said to Jack back there, I mean. That the club’s against you because you disagree with dogfights and human trafficking for D.L., and Jack’s trying to force you into it? Manipulating you?”
He cocks an eyebrow at me and sweeps his gaze over my body wryly. “What gave that away?”
I flush. Obviously, I am a pawn in Jack’s game. Bane’s been telling me this all along. “Good point.”
Bane’s grin grows mirthless and bleak. “But you believe me now, is that it?”
We stare at each other for along, heavy moment. A smile plays over Bane’s lips when I can’t immediately deny it. He rubs his hands over his face and suddenly looks very tired.