Recalled (32 page)

“If I were a guy, I would totally kiss you,” Frankie said and we both burst out laughing.

Our good time was interrupted by a knock at the door. Frankie looked at me, lifting a blond eyebrow. “Maybe that’s him now.”

“Be nice!” I demanded in a loud whisper as she got off the couch and headed for the door.

She motioned dramatically and wagged her eyebrows before grabbing the knob and pulling open the door.

“What are you doing here?” she said, exasperated, when the door was open.

I turned to look over my shoulder, the smile falling from my lips. It wasn’t Dex. It was a man I’d never seen before. He was
very good-looking and dressed in an expensive wool coat buttoned all the way up around his neck. He had dark hair that was artfully arranged to look messy (not like Dex’s, which actually
was
messy) and green eyes that held a light of mischief.

“Don’t you have a home?” the man sad, his eyes settling on Frankie.

“If I did I wouldn’t give you the address,” Frankie retorted.

“Can we help you?” I said, ignoring the obvious undercurrents of dislike between my best friend and this man.

“Piper, this is that guy I told you about, the annoying one who came by the other day when you weren’t home.”

I got up off the couch, wondering why someone I didn’t know would come here to see me.

“I’m sorry, do we know each other?” I asked. Maybe he was someone I had a class with and didn’t remember.

“No. We don’t. We have a mutual friend.”

“Who?” I asked as he stepped through the door into the apartment. A feeling of unease came over me.

“Dex.” He replied around a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Oh,” I said. “You know Dex?”

I noticed Frankie had yet to close the door but was walking farther into the room, watching him. “I don’t know, Piper. If Dex is anything like this guy here, you should get out now.”

He glanced at Frankie and grinned. This time it seemed more genuine but also very annoyed. Then he glanced back at me.

“I’m afraid it’s too late to get out.”

“What?” I said, confused.

He began to pull his hand out of his pocket and I noticed there was something in it.

“Look out!” Frankie yelled. “He has a gun!” She threw herself at me and we both went sprawling on the floor Frankie landing on top of me.

“Get up,” the man said, annoyed, reaching down to pull Frankie to her feet. “I can’t get a decent shot with you in the way.”

“Did you just call me fat?” she said, offended. “I am not fat. I’m curvy.”

He snorted and as I was getting up off the floor Frankie swung at him.

It didn’t work out too well for her. He grabbed her arm and twisted it around her back, making her cry out in pain.

“You have to be the most infuriating girl I’ve ever met.”

Frankie stomped on his foot with her heeled boot.

He howled in pain but didn’t let go. Instead, he pointed his gun at her.

“Wait!” I cried. “Please don’t hurt her.”

He glanced at me and I thought what a shame it was that such good looks be wasted on a monster.

“Didn’t you come here for me?”

“Yes. Yes, I did. I seem to have gotten distracted by this loud lump of a girl.”

Frankie stomped on his foot again and this time he released her. “Ouch!” he yelled.

She dove at him, trying to knock the gun from his grasp, but he pushed her back and then leveled it right at her chest.

All at once I understood why the sweater she was wearing looked familiar. It was the one she wore in the vision I had. The vision where she died.

“No!” I screamed and threw myself at Frankie, knocking her out of the way as the gun went off, the shot going wild and shattering the glass of the window.

Before Frankie and I could jump up, I was yanked to my feet by the man and he was dragging me out the door.

“Look what you’ve made me do. Now I’m going to have to kill you somewhere else. Someone’s probably already called the cops.”

Kill me?

I dug my feet into the floor, trying to slow him down, but it was no use. He lifted me off my feet and put my body firmly against his as if I were his shield. Then he brought the gun up to my temple and looked at Frankie, who was about to charge like a bull.

“Come any closer and I will kill her now, cops be damned.”

Frankie looked between me and the gun, her eyes filling with tears.

“It’s okay, Frankie. I’ll be fine.”

I could tell by the look on her face she didn’t believe me.

And as the man with the gun dragged me out the door, I didn’t believe me either.

Chapter Forty-Five

“Void - A feeling or state of emptiness, loneliness, or loss.”

Dex

I couldn’t say there was no color here because everything was black and black was the presence of all color. Yet, for a color that should be so full, it was maddeningly empty. It was almost as if there were too many colors and they all drowned one another out until there was nothing… nothing but darkness.

I felt as if I were Alice in Wonderland and I’d fallen down a rabbit hole, falling still. There was no bottom to this place. There was no beginning either. I was just falling endlessly.

I didn’t know which way was up or which way was down. There probably was no direction here, because I wasn’t going anywhere. I knew I wasn’t alone, but I saw no one, yet I heard them. Tortured wails, distorted moans came out of the darkness and pummeled me. It sent me spiraling, spinning in all directions. I felt as if I were being pulled apart, but still I stayed together.

There was no end to the constant noise. I tried to call out to them to stop, but I had no voice. I had no mouth. No one would see me, no one would hear me, but I would be here.

Forever floating.

I tried to call upon a memory, a thought to keep me sane. Something to hold on to. Something to envision.

But they were all out of reach. I had no memories. I had no thoughts. All I had were the screams, the echoes of anguish, and the constant feeling of nothing.

I began to envy those cries in the dark. Because at least they had something. They had a way to show their pain. They, too, knew something had been taken away from them. They mourned for the things they couldn’t remember. They mourned for the emptiness that encompassed us.

I didn’t even have that.

All I had was the taunting, fleeting knowledge that I’d lost everything and gained nothing.

I did have a second to wonder when it would end.

But then I realized it would not.

* * *

I woke with a shuddering breath, the kind that pulls you up off of what you’re lying on. And for me, that would be the kitchen floor. I steadied myself, bracing my palms on the cold tile and took another deep breath.

Feelings and sensations rushed over me. It was almost overwhelming. I sat there for I don’t know how long trying to make sense of them all. Trying to sort out everything.

When I tried to think about what happened, all I got was this empty blackness that seemed to open up inside my chest and try to pull me in. I jumped up onto my feet, trying to get away from whatever it was that wanted to claim me.

“Ah, you’re back,” called a voice from the living room.

I spun and walked toward the couch where G.R. was lying on his back, his hands across his abdomen and his eyes closed. He was so bony he looked like a corpse.

“What happened?” I asked, my voice low and scratchy like I hadn’t spoken in days.

“I gave you a taste of what it was like to be recalled,” Grim said, opening his eyes to stare at me. “How was it?”

Panic seized my chest and I gripped the back of the couch. “Please don’t send me back there.” I begged. It was a place far worse than hell.

G.R. threw his legs over the side of the couch and sat up. “I see my message was received.”

“Your message?” I said, confused. The empty void of that place was still swirling through my mind, making it very hard to think.

He stood and looked at me. “That the Target will be eliminated.”

Piper. Death. Job.

“Right,” I said, drawing in a shaking breath. “I’ll do the job. I swear.” Anything to avoid going back there.

“I trust that you will. You’re time has dwindled. Finish the job.”

I looked toward the window. It was dark.

“How long was I… was I gone?” I asked, trying desperately not to think of that place.

“Several days,” G.R. said, stepping away from the couch.

“
Days?
” I asked, shocked.

“Yes, now I really must be going. I have other Escorts and deaths to attend to.”

I stood there in shock as he seemed to create a doorway out of thin air and step through. Then it closed behind him, leaving me alone.

I suddenly had a
very
strong aversion to being alone.

There was a noise behind me and I turned to see Hobbs coming down the stairs. I’d never been so happy to see the butler in all my life.

“Hobbs,” I said, the relief clear in my voice.

“What has happened? Who was that man?” he asked, leaning more heavily on his cane than I’d ever seen before.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I said, staring at the spot where Grim had disappeared.

“I am very good at the unbelievable,” Hobbs replied.

I shook my head and swayed a little on my feet.

“How long’s it been since you have eaten?” Hobbs asked, going into the kitchen. “You look horribly drained.”

I was drained. Every single thing inside me was completely emptied and then replaced. All to prove a point.

I sank onto a stool at the island.

Hobbs picked up the pot and smelled the black liquid that looked more like mud. “Um, sir. How long has this been here?”

“I have no idea, Hobbs,” I said. “Probably days.”

He made a noise and then began moving around the kitchen. I barely paid attention to anything he was doing. I kept slipping back into that world of nothing. The next time I looked down there was a steaming cup of coffee, practically white with creamer.