He halted at a door, and another scream tore through my ears. He appeared stoically detached, as if the screech of pain was something he was used to hearing on a daily basis.

Maybe it was.

Maybe I hadn’t known him at all, even before I’d lost my memory.

He pushed in a key. “She’s in there.” He wedged the door open and removed a penlight from his pocket. The beam bounced across an empty cot. Mouth flattening into a line, he shoved the door wider, and the tiny stream of light lit up a huddled form on the floor.

“There’s no light in these rooms, but at least you got a bucket to shit in.” He swerved the beam to the other end of the room.

I couldn’t care less about the bucket or the lights or his casual, helpful tone. He sure as fuck wasn’t a friend of mine. I gazed down the hall, toward the end that led to the middle of nowhere in Forest Park, and wondered how much time it would take to get Alex out, assuming I could knock Jax on his traitorous ass first. The drugs were definitely wearing off, but the edges of my vision were still hazy, and I had shit for strength in my arms. She’d probably need to be carried out of here.

“Escaping isn’t gonna happen.”

My attention snapped to him. I was a moment away from trying to knock him out anyway, but the two goons—the ones who’d walked my pathetic ass into the showers—appeared a few feet down the tunnel.

Jax shut off the penlight and leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “We’re both stuck here, whether we like it or not.”

“Don’t play the victim, Jax. This is fucked up.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” He shoved me into the room and slammed the door. I turned, and my hands smoothed over the surface, but he’d already clicked over the lock.

Suffocating blackness strangled me, blocking my air—blocking out everything except the stream of memories that flooded my head. I slid to the floor, my limbs shaking, losing strength as the last bit of adrenaline left my system.

Another shriek came through the wall, knifing through me, as pieces of my past resurfaced.

7. Taking Shelter - Alex

7. TAKING SHELTER - ALEX

I jumped when the door burst open. Light beamed into the blackness, but it was too quick to note anything other than Rafe’s presence. He spoke to someone for a few moments, though I couldn’t understand what he said. Then he stumbled inside and the clank of the lock echoed, leaving us in complete darkness. Silence thickened the air, broken into pieces by the screams of the girl next door. Between the wailing, I listened, waiting for him to say something, do something, make some noise that indicated he was there, because I knew he was.