Page 63 of Revived
“Kenz needs us in the back locker rooms.” She shrugs. “Something about her hair and how she’s going to shave her head if she has to redo it again. I figured since you’re the braid whisperer that you’re the perfect person.” She laughs lightly.
Kenz really does have a hard time on comp days getting her hair how she wants it. I end up doing it for her more times than not. It shouldn’t take too long, so I leave my phone and headphones on the bench and replace them with a couple of different combs as well as boar and detangling brushes. I grab some tiny and regular sized hair ties and follow Addy out.
“What in the world is she doing in the back locker room?” I note as we turn down the hallway to the old locker rooms.
“She said she was warming up in here so she could play her music and not get distracted.” Addy tells me nonchalantly.
We step into the locker room, but there’s no sight of Mackenzie. I turn on my heels just in time to see it coming before I’m hit with it. Fifty thousand volts straight to my ribs. All of my muscles lock up as pain radiates through my body for what seems like hours but must only be a few seconds. As soon as the shock stops, I’m pricked with something in the side of my neck. As everything fades, I hear Addy’s manic laughter.
“You stupid bitch.”
***
My mouth is as dry as a desert and my limbs are screaming at me to move. Pain radiates in my head, beating with the time of my pulse.Nausea fights to win out as I already feel like the room is spinning. The memories come racing back to me as I fight through the white hot pain.
Addy.
We’ve been friends since I started training for my last Olympics when we were in college. She came in and her personality just clicked with mine and Mackenzie…Oh shit. Is she in on this too?A groan fights its way up my throat, alerting whoever is in this cold room with me that I’m at the very least conscious.
Come on, Elena. You’ve been raised by one of the most ruthless men in the country. You can get out of this.
“Well, hello my little gymnast.”That voice.
I pry my eyes open, just enough to catch a glimpse of the tall man. His eyes are ice blue and his hair is the finest white blonde. The similarities are so uncanny that I don’t know how I didn’t clock it when she first stepped foot in the gym. This man looks identical to the man from that night all those years ago, but he also looks almost identical to the blonde bitch who’s been masquerading as my friend for years.
I groan out in protest as I realize that I’m covered in liquid. My body shivers as the chill sets into my bones. “Please. Help me.” I try. If he’s as in love with me as he’s been acting, maybe I can play to that.
“I know, principessa. I know, and I’m so sorry. You’ll forgive me for this one day. I hope you can understand. I have to help my sister get to the games, and we can’t do that with you standing in the way.”
Sadness fills his eyes as my brain tries to work through what he’s saying. That is until I see the silver of the hammer in his hand glint in the low locker room light just before he swings it down and it connects with my elbow. A scream lodges in my throat as the pain runs through every part of my body until blackness dots my vision. The hammercomes down one more time, and the moment it connects with my forearm, I let the darkness take me. It’s got to be better than this.
Chapter thirty-one
Sullivan Byrne
“Can you stop?” Flynn grounds out beside me. Okay, to be fair to him, I haven’t stopped squirming in my seat since we got here. I’ve seen Addy and even Kenz warming up, but no sight of Elle. My stomach has been churning all day. I want to blame nerves, but something gnawing at me tells me it’s more than that. He’s here. I don’t know where, but I know he’s here. I can feel it in my bones.
“Sorry.” I grumble, my eyes eating up every bit of space in the large open gymnasium.
Xavier leans over to me from my other side and half whispers, “I don’t see her. Can we go check on her? Something doesn’t feel right.”
I couldn’t agree more. She should be out there right now. Even if she was just sitting against the wall with her headphones on. I pull up her tracker on her phone. It says she’s in the locker room, and the only time she leaves it is if she’s on the mats. She’s either in the locker room or on the way out here.
“Her phone is in the locker room. Let’s give her five more minutes, then we’ll all go look.”
He nods in agreement, and we all go back to scanning the crowd. Mac’s voice rings through my ear from the earpiece we’re all wearing.
“I’ve got a picture. Sending it now. You see this guy, you let me know. No sight of Elle yet. I have the footage from every camera inthis place on mine and Lee’s computer. If she’s in the building, we’ll find her.”
I pull out my phone and shoot off a text to him, letting him know he’s got five minutes before he has five pissed off men storming every inch of this place to find her. My eyes find Kenz again and find her looking right at me. A puzzled look crosses her face as she subtly shrugs and tilts her head. She’s asking where Elle is. I shrug back and point to her, a silent way of asking if she’s seen her. Kenz subtly shakes her head then nods towards Addy, whose back is to us.
That’s weird. How do you live with each other but haven’t seen each other?
Kenzie's eyes drift to the hall that leads to the locker rooms before looking back to me and raising her eyebrows. I elbow Flynn and X so they see too. Xavier elbows Knox, who elbows Dom, and wordlessly the five of us stand to make our way to that hall. Whatever she has to say is something that my intuition is telling me I’ll need to hear.
It takes us only a couple of minutes to make our way down to the tunnel. Mackenzie waits for us there in her official warm ups. I notice her fidgeting as we approach.
“What’s up, Kenz?” I ask with skepticism.
