Tested (25 page)

“I’m so sorry,” he said softly. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here quicker.” His hand cupped her cheek gently, his thumb running over the spot where she’d been struck by Geoff. “God, I’m so sorry, Missy.”

She wanted to tell him to stop apologizing. That he wasn’t responsible for the actions of others. He’d had nothing to do with any of this. But she couldn’t form the words. She couldn’t do much but continue to cry under the weight of what she’d almost gone through – again.

Tyler lifted her up gently, his eyes taking her in clinically, looking for any other injuries. All she could do was stand there, her body unable to cease shaking.

“We need to get you changed,” he was saying, his voice the only thing penetrating the haze that was quickly descending over her. Missy looked up at him, confused. “Hands up,” he instructed.

Missy did as she was told, part of her appreciative that he wasn’t babying her. He seemed determined to get done whatever he had planned, and wasn’t waiting for her to regain her composure in order to do so. He was forcing her to put herself back together, something no one else probably would have done for her. Especially knowing what she’d been through before.

This realization helped to stop some of the tears still leaking from her eyes. Tyler lifted her shirt up and over her head while she watched him numbly. He motioned for her to step out of the scraps that had once been her pants. She did so, on her own, as he reached under the black NWO vest he wore, pulling out another set of black clothing she recognized as a uniform.

Neither of them spoke as Tyler helped her step into the pants that were far too big for her. He knelt in front of her, rolling up the bottom of her pants so she wouldn’t trip. Meanwhile, she rolled the waist up as well, mostly to keep them from falling off since she didn’t have a belt. Tyler stood again, his eyes all serious, despite the fact that she was standing there in just a bra.

He pulled a shirt over her head, the fabric thick and soft against her skin. Tears started to form again, no matter how much she wished they wouldn’t. Tyler didn’t comment, simply taking each of her arms and putting them through the sleeves until she was fully dressed. The left side was wet and cold against her. Missy reached down and touched the spot, bringing her hand back up to see it covered in a red liquid. She cried harder then, knowing whomever’s clothes she was wearing, she also now wore their blood. I guess she knew now what had taken him so long to return.

Tyler took off his vest and put it on her instead, zipping up the front to hide any of her curves.

“I need you to hold it together for just a while longer,” he said, pulling out a plain, black cap, and placing it on her head. He shoved her long tresses under the fabric. “I’ll get you home, Missy. We’ll be safe soon. Just hold on.” He went to cup her chin gently, freezing midway when she flinched from his touch. Letting his hand drop, he sighed, deflated. “Come on then,” he said. “Let’s get you home.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Their trip back to the western ghetto went by in a blur, a permanent haze hanging over her the entire time. Tyler remained silent, only speaking when necessary. He had walked up to the guard house at the gates as though he owned the place. Missy had kept her face down so they wouldn’t notice she was a girl, and followed close behind.

No one stopped them. The entire time they’d walked through the Upper section and right into the western ghetto, they’d been left alone. It had almost felt too easy, not that she was complaining. Her face hurt and body hurt, and more importantly she was emotionally a mess.

She knew Tyler was trying to keep his distance so as to not upset her further, since the few times he had attempted to touch her she’d flinched away each time. Guilt would fill her, but she just couldn’t seem to control her reaction. All she wanted to do was be back in the safety of her home, tucked away in her room where she could hide away from the world again.

All the growth she’d accomplished since setting out to save Tyler seemed to have been completely, and utterly reversed now. Her inner voice argued with her to smarten up and not let something like this bring her down again. It wasn’t as though the soldiers had accomplished what they’d set out to do. But it didn’t matter to the less rational side of her brain. The whole thing had brought up too many painful memories for her to just simply brush off her knees and continue on.

When they’d rounded the corner, her house coming into sight, it had felt like the biggest weight had been lifted off her chest. She’d breathed a little easier, even picking up her pace for the first time, eager to be in familiar surroundings.

The reception they got when they entered was both expected and unexpected. Voices collided in surprise, demands to know how they’d managed to get back so fast, and questions about just what was happening where they’d been. What was unexpected was the absence of her sister.

Missy looked around, confused as to why Phoenix wasn’t berating her for putting herself in danger. It was exactly what she should have been doing, if Missy knew her sister at all.

“Where’s Phoenix?” she asked, her voice softer than those around her. Yet everyone seemed to have heard her, instantly growing quiet. Unease slithered into her stomach as she looked to her father, then Charlotte. “Where’s my sister?” She felt Tyler take a step closer to her, not touching.

Charlotte cleared her throat before meeting her gaze. “She’s…missing.”

It was Tyler who responded. Her voice seemed to have escaped her completely. “Missing? Since when?”

“For a couple of weeks now,” Pete answered. His words were like a sucker punch to her stomach. “Trent is missing too.”

Tyler cursed under his breath. “What do you know?”

“Only that they were seen being put into a van,” Garrett said.

Missy gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “God, no!” She spun to face Tyler. “What if…”

He reached for her, stopping midway before letting his hand drop. He looked down for a moment, his jaw tense, before running the same hand through his hair. When he looked back up at her, she could see him battling with something inside him, but his eyes quickly shuttered to the same expressionless look he often wore.

“I don’t think they were there,” he said.

She shook her head. “You don’t know that. They could have been trapped in one of the other rooms.”

“We don’t think they were taken to the same place as you two,” Lake said, grabbing their attention.

“Why not?” Missy asked.

“The van was different than the one being used by the General,” Seamus answered. “It seems we have two groups of people abducting civilians off the street.”

“Great,” Tyler muttered.

Seamus smiled grimly. “My sentiments exactly, mate.”

Every hour that he was awake, he spent looking for Trent and Phoenix. They all did. But Tyler specifically threw himself into the search. Part of it was his concern for his friend. He and Trent had been friends for years, and the fact that he’d vanished completely did not sit well with him. Especially considering the amount of shit the General was planning, and despite the van having been different.

The other part of him just wanted to be out of the house as much as he could. It was too hard to stay there – close to her. Missy had retreated into herself even more than she had when he’d first arrived in the western ghetto. After everything they’d gone through together, all that had happened between them, he thought…Well, obviously he’d thought wrong. After her attack by those soldiers, she wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

It hurt. Far worse than he thought it would. His feelings for Missy made being around her, but not being able to physically touch her, more than he could bear. All he wanted to do was hold her, kiss her, show her that not all men were evil like those blasted soldiers and technicians. Surely she realized he would do anything to protect her. That he would never hurt her.

He knew it wasn’t necessarily him she was afraid of, but that didn’t stop her from ignoring him again. During breakfast, his eyes would watch her every move, no longer trying to hide it from the others. Unless she happened to look his way, which was few and far between. He’d look away then so he wouldn’t make her nervous, but he was sure everyone else had picked up on something.

No one asked, and Tyler didn’t say anything. In fact, he didn’t say much of anything to any of them about what had happened, other than explaining about what they’d done strictly to him. He explained how the drugs felt, the effect they’d had on him, and how they’d trained him day in and day out. He never said a word about Missy or what had taken place between them. It was nobody’s business. He wasn’t sure if she even wanted anyone to know, if he was being honest with himself.

The possibility that perhaps she was ashamed of being with him was something he thought about often while trying to fall asleep at night. It made his stomach turn, and he’d be up at the crack of dawn again and out of the house as soon as he’d had a quick bite to eat.

It wasn’t until the second week of being back that they’d made a major discovery. One of the men who kept a place near the northern side of the city told them about some men who would come in from the countryside every so often, and then leave again the same day. From the way he’d described the black van, they knew it was the same group.

After some further digging, they’d come up with an explanation that left them all sitting around the family room in a tense silence. Missy stood across the room from him, her arms crossed protectively in front of her. He wished he could keep her out of all this, but knew it was neither fair nor possible.

“Some sort of underground ring?” Michael asked, rubbing at his chin.

“Aye,” Tyler said, tiredly. The past weeks were finally starting to catch up to him, he reckoned. His entire body felt like he needed to sleep for a week straight. “The kind of ring you don’t walk out of unless you’re the winner, if you catch my drift.” His eyes glanced up at Missy, noticing how pale she’d become.

“What is the purpose of it?” Lake asked, her eyebrows pulled into a confused frown.

“As if the damn government isn’t killing off enough of us, now we have regular civilians helping out,” Sam said in a disgusted voice.

“Dark times, my dear,” Missy’s father said. “It makes people do things perhaps they wouldn’t normally do.”

Michael shook his head sadly. “All for the sake of entertainment at that.”

“What are people betting in such a ring when no one has money?” Seamus asked.

“We don’t know,” Pete answered. “Could be anything. These are countryside men and women. We all know the stories about the sort of things happening out there.”

“Yes, the hillsides are just crawling with thieves and beggers,” Seamus said dryly.

“Well, whatever the truth, it looks like they’ve got quite the successful operation going,” Pete continued. “From what we’ve heard, it draws a very large crowd on fight days.”

“Perfect,” Garrett muttered. “Now that we know all this, what do we do with it?”

“We go in and get them out,” Charlotte said as though it were obvious.

“I love the way she thinks things are so easy,” Seamus said, rolling his eyes.

“She’s right,” Tyler said. “We need to find a way to get there, and then find a way to get them both out. Unless they win every fight…” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

“Even if they win, the result will be something neither of them can stand,” Violet said softly.

Tyler knew what it was like to kill someone in a ring. The memory was one that haunted him often now that his thoughts were clear. He doubted it was something he’d ever forget. Guilt was a heavy burden to carry, even if he hadn’t been in his right mind at the time. He shook off his thoughts, focusing on what was important right then.

“I’ll go in as a fighter so I can get access to them,” Tyler offered. Everyone’s eyes swung in his direction, but he only really felt one pair, even though he refused to meet them.

“You just got back, mate,” Pete said.

“Aye, but it makes the most sense.”

“The hell it does!” Missy’s protest shocked him enough to have him looking over at her, eyebrows raised.

“Lass, you of all people know just how well trained I am for this sort of thing. I’ve been fighting in a cage more now than anyone else in the room. Not to mention the fact that I’m – enhanced, so-to-speak.”

A blush crawled across her cheeks, even as her eyes narrowed in the way that he knew meant she wanted to argue. It was the most reaction he’d seen from her in weeks. A small glimpse of the girl she’d been when they’d been together, away from everyone else. When she’d been stronger and more confident, he thought sadly. Her mouth opened and closed a number of times like a fish out of water, but nothing came out.

He smiled triumphantly at her. “It’s settled then. My fighting career has officially just taken a new turn. Who would have thought?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Missy paced in front of the window, the worn boards of her bedroom smooth beneath her bare feet. She bit at her thumbnail, her mind frantic from all the recent events. What was she going to do now? Damn it.
What was she going to do?