The shadow man appeared next to her, his face still hidden from view. He leaned down, his mouth right next to her ear.
"This is what happens when you mess with one of my guys. I tried to warn you off five years ago. You should have stayed away."
Cate struggled to stay awake. She needed to see his face. But the world around her spun, her head suddenly weighed too much, and she finally lost the fight to stay awake.
* * * *
Moments, or hours, later—she wasn't sure how much time had passed—she awoke to the soft caresses of someone's fingers in her hair. She tried to sit up, but soft hands pushed her back down.
"Shh, I've got you." Amanda Morgan.
Cate's head was cradled in Amanda’s lap, and she was lying on the dirty mattress. Fabric was wrapped tightly around her legs.
"How did—" she tried to ask, but her throat felt dry and stuck together. When was the last time she'd had any water?
"My shirt," Amanda answered. "I had to stop the bleeding."
"Thank you," Cate whispered, and then her world went dark again.
The soft mattress was gone. Amanda wasn't there beside her.
"Amanda?" she cried out, her voice sounding as if her vocal cords had been cut with razor blades.
Laughter sounded, and Cate opened her good eye. She was back in that dreadful room. The room where all the bad things happened. Her body was convulsing—from the loss of blood, the lack of water, the cold. It was all too much. What more could they do to her? What else could she withstand?
Tariq Ahmed Ben Ali stepped under the single bulb in the room. His gaze raked over her body from head to toe. Her bra was hanging in tatters, her panties soaked through with sweat and blood. And yet lust filled Tariq's eyes as he stared at her, strapped to that awful chair of torture.
"It's a shame they scarred your face." He tsk-tsked as if talking to a wayward child. "Won't matter too much, though. I'll still fetch a pretty price for you."
Moving to her side, he brushed a hand down the good side of her face. "Such a beautiful face."
She wanted to spit at him. Beat his face in with her fists. But she was too weak. So weak she couldn't even hold her head up.
"I had you once in my possession, and now it seems as though fate has brought us together again."
His hand moved down between her breasts, laying it flat where her heart would be, not caring about the cut that was there, or the blood covering his hand. He knelt in front of her. She could smell garlic and spices on his breath.
"I think I'll keep you for a little while before I sell you." He traced a path down her stomach to the top of her panties, circling his finger around her belly button.
"And no one will save you this time." He laughed, throwing his head back as if her loss of freedom was the funniest thing he'd heard in a long time.
Desperation threatened to choke the life out of Cate. She'd never hurt this bad. Never been this scared. And never been this angry. He might hurt her, cut her, hit her. But he wouldn't take her pride.
She whispered something under her breath.
Tariq leaned closer. "What is it, my dear?"
She whispered it again.
Tariq leaned closer still.
She leaned her head back, making eye contact with the son of a bitch that had the nerve to take away her future. Then, with as much force as she could muster, she threw her head forward, catching the bridge of his nose with her forehead. Pain ricocheted through her head as blood spurted from Tariq's broken nose.
"You bitch!" he screamed. Musa ran into the room. He took in the blood rushing from Tariq's nose, and the fresh blood running rivulets down Cate's face from the newest gash in her forehead, a result of her assault. With two steps, he closed the distance.
A sledgehammer hit the side of her face, and Cate's eyes rolled back in her head.
* * * *
The shouts sounded so far away. The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire pierced the dense fog in her head. Her name rose up among the chaos.
Hands touched her, and she jerked back, terror ripping through her. She couldn't take any more. Why didn't they just kill her?
"It's ok, mi amore. It's me," he said, his voice breaking through the haze in her mind.
"Gabriel?" she tried to say, but her voice was hoarse, and the name came out garbled.
"Dios! What did they do to you?" he said, more to himself than to her. She could hear the emotion in his voice. She wanted to tell him that it was ok. She wanted to tell him that she'd tried to fight. She wanted to tell him that she loved him.
But nothing worked the way it should, and exhaustion tugged at her, beckoning to her from the darkness. In the darkness, she didn't feel the pain.
"Stay with me, Cate." Her hands were free, and she was scooped up into his strong arms. Safe. Finally, she felt safe. Safe from Tariq and the shadow man. Safe from the torture. Safe from Musa. No one could harm her when Gabriel had her.
Something important flickered in her mind. Something she needed to tell him.
"Amanda," she croaked, trying to open her eyes.
"Shh, don't talk. We got her."
Good. Amanda was safe, too. But there was something else. Someone in danger. Then it hit her. The shadow man knew about Christy.
"Christy," she tried again.
"Should go to jail for a long time," Gabriel grumbled.
"No. Not safe. Shadow man. Knows." Her thoughts were all jumbled together. Cate couldn’t seem to string a sentence together.
"What shadow man? What does he know, Cate?" Gabriel asked, lightly stroking the side of her face to keep her awake. He had no idea how badly that soft touch hurt right now. She wouldn't be the one to tell him.
"Don't know. He knows about Christy. Protect her."
With those words, Cate couldn't fight the darkness any longer. Safe in Gabriel's arms, she let go and slid into painless oblivion.
Chapter 28
Gabriel paced back and forth in the waiting room of the hospital. He hadn't known if they would get there in time. After leaving Haney's, he'd called in the address to Zach. The whole team had met him there.
Sully had also called in the SWAT team, and they'd gone in with enough firepower to set ablaze a small country. They'd found Amanda and thirty other women holed up in the basement. Tariq Ahmed Ben Ali and Musa Mohamet had been killed in the exchange of gunfire. Gabriel thought it was much too quick a death for them both.
A nurse stepped into the waiting room. "Gabriel Sanchez?"
"Yeah. Is she ok? Can I see her?"
"She's ok, but she has a long recovery ahead of her. The doctor is in with her now. You can go in, and he can tell you more about her injuries."
He ran to her room and threw open the door, desperate to see her alive. The doctor stood at her bedside, clipboard in hand. He turned when Gabriel burst in, and smiled warmly.
"You must be Gabriel." The doctor held out his hand.
"I am." He shook the doctor's hand. "How is she?"
"Alive. It could have been worse, I guess, but not by much." Gabriel glanced at Cate, so small and frail. She was deathly pale, almost a gray color. Bright purple bruises marred her beautiful face. Her chest was wrapped in bandages, and he could see the wounds stitched up on her face, chest, and thighs. If the bastards who’d done this to her weren't already dead, he'd kill them all over again.
"She's got several broken ribs. We had a plastic surgeon come in and do the sutures, so the scarring on her face should be minimal. Fortunately, the blade didn't cut through all the muscles and nerves, so it seems that most are still intact. It will take time to heal, but we fully expect that she'll have a full range of motion and expression on that side of her face."
Gabriel sighed in relief. When he'd seen her face, he’d feared that the muscles would be too damaged and that she'd have a terrible reminder of her ordeal for the rest of her life. He was grateful that her scarring would be minimal.
"Her cheekbone was broken," the doctor continued. "And she lost a l
ot of blood from the wounds in her thigh. We had to give her a transfusion, as her blood pressure was dangerously low. She also suffered from a severe concussion, dehydration, and multiple contusions. The burns on her arms will heal, but she'll have some scarring there." He paused and looked back at Cate, admiration on his face.
"All in all, she's lucky to be alive. That's one hell of a woman you've got there."
"Indeed she is," Gabriel said and looked at Cate, lying there so small and helpless, as the doctor left him alone with her. Gabriel felt as if he'd been punched in the stomach. So much damage. So much torture she'd endured. Yet there she lay, breathing. Alive. Beautiful.
Gabriel pulled the side chair closer to the bed, gently sliding his hand underneath hers. He loved her. With every fiber of his being, he loved her, and he vowed that she would never feel this kind of pain again. No one would ever hurt her, and he would try his damnedest to make sure that he didn't hurt her, either.
Physically hurting her was never his fear. It was emotional and spiritual hurt that he knew he was capable of. But he planned to work his ass off in therapy in order to be good enough for her. Because he wasn't about to live the rest of his life without her.
He leaned forward, placing a chaste kiss on the one spot on her forehead that didn't look bruised.
Her eyes fluttered open.
"Gabriel?" she croaked.
"Sí, mi alma. It's me."
She tried to sit up, frantically looking around.
"Where am I? Where's Amanda? Is Christy ok?" she asked.
"Shh, Cate. You're in the hospital. Amanda and Christy are fine. Rest." He gently pushed her back down against the pillows, careful not to touch her bandages. He'd told Sully about Cate, saying that Christy was in danger. He wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but they'd sent a guy over to pick her up and take her back to the warehouse to keep her safe.
She relaxed. "Good. Tariq?"
"Dead."
She nodded. "That's good, too."
"His thug Musa is dead as well."
Cate didn't say anything about that, but she looked troubled.
"What is it?"
"The shadow man. Did you catch him?"
"Who's the shadow man?"
"The man who had me taken. He knew Christy. Knew we'd hacked into her computer."
"He was there?"
Cate nodded.
All the air whooshed out of his lungs. Had The General taken Cate? Was he responsible for this carnage? The man who had rescued him, Sully, Lucas, Zach, and Isabel—could he also be some evil mastermind behind the scenes?
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure." She paused, then met his eyes. "And Gabriel?"
He leaned closer, placing his other hand on top of hers.
"He's the same man who was on the phone five years ago."
Chapter 29
One week later
"What can you tell us about him?" Sully asked Cate.
She sat in the conference room in the warehouse. The swelling on her face had gone down, and she was able to see out of both eyes now. The rainbow of colors on her face, though, was a sight to behold. Her ribs still hurt like hell, as well as most of the rest of her body. But she was healing. The doctor had said that the stitches could come out in a few days.
She took a deep breath. Remembering the events that had transpired was still hard for her. Isabel had come over every day to help her talk through her emotions, helping her to remember and process. It would take some time, but she would get past this.
"He was tall. Maybe six-three?" She racked her brain for anything that might be useful in bringing this guy down. "He had broad shoulders and close-cropped hair. Military style. I only briefly saw the side of his face when he lit the cigarette. He looked familiar somehow, but I couldn't tell you when I'd seen him, or where. He was older, maybe late fifties, early sixties."
"Good. Anything you remember can help us. If you heard his voice again, would you remember it?" Sully asked gently.
"Definitely."
"Zach is following some leads. We think The General you encountered is the same one who was the benefactor for Castle Investigations. He also calls us with leads about cases he'd like for us to take on." Sully sighed, crossing his arms across his massive chest and leaning back in his chair.
"We can't know that for sure, but it seems awfully coincidental," Gabriel added.
Cate was shocked. They worked for the same man who'd had her tortured?
"We had no way of knowing what he was capable of, Cate." Gabriel took her hand in his. She relaxed a bit. These men had risked their lives to save her. She knew they were honorable men. They would never knowingly work for a criminal mastermind.
"So, what now?" Cate asked.
"We're expecting a call today. The General always uses a voice disguiser, but we thought there might be something you'd hear—something that might trigger a memory of something he said. The cadence of the words—something."
"When's the call?" she asked, nervously wringing her hands.
"Any minute."
Cate nodded. Any minute, the man who'd done these terrible things to her, the one who'd almost taken the only man she'd ever loved out of her life for good, the man who'd tried to have her sold into slavery, might be on the phone. Could she handle it?
The phone buzzed, and Zach's voice echoed over the intercom.
"It's him."
"You ready?" Sully asked her. She dipped her chin in agreement. "Put him through."
"Castle. Give me an update on the cluster happening on this missing persons case." The voice was almost robotic in nature, and Cate wondered how she'd get anything from a phone call like this.
"We found her. Along with thirty other girls and a crap-ton of guns," Sully answered.
"Good. What's the update on Gabriel?"
Gabriel's eyebrows rose, confusion on his face.
"What do you mean, sir?" Sully asked, clearly not understanding the meaning behind the question, either.
"I mean, is he still chasing that long-haired reporter around, or has he decided to do what you hired him to do?"
Unease crawled up Cate's spine, and she remembered those words the man had whispered in her ear when she'd been almost unconscious. She didn't think he'd realized that she was still aware.
"This is what happens when you mess with one of my guys. I tried to warn you off five years ago. You should have stayed away."
Panic crawled over her skin, sweat following in its path. Her breaths came hard and fast. Isabel was there, pushing her head between her legs, while Gabriel grabbed her hand, squeezing to let her know he was there.
"You there, Castle?"
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Gabriel is a fine operator. I haven't noticed any distraction, but I promise that if it becomes a problem, I'll be sure to talk to him about it."
A long pause sounded over the phone. "Sir?" Sully asked, to make sure he was still there.
"See that you do. I've got another case for you." Cate tuned out while The General gave the team details of another missing persons case. Gabriel seemed equally distracted, staring into space while unconsciously stroking the back of Cate's hand with his thumb.
When Sully ended the call, Cate said, "It's him. I obviously can't recognize his voice, but something he said just now about Gabriel—it was very similar to what he said to me down in that torture room. And it all makes sense—he doesn't want me getting close to Gabriel since I’m a journalist. I might uncover something about him."
"I'd say that's the truth of it. But what kind of man are we working with if he would have you tortured and sold into slavery? And how involved was he with Tariq? Or Haney?" Sully asked.
"Let's not forget that he has to be the same guy that blackmailed Christy and owns the agency. I'd say he's in this up to his eyeballs," Ethan said.
"The parties!" Cate exclaimed, remembering why the man had seemed familiar.
"What?" Gabriel asked.
"He's the man that I saw upstairs in
the private rooms at the party. The man in the satanic mask. It was The General."
"Are you sure?" Gabriel took her hands in his, grounding her. Helping her to remember.
She nodded. "We made eye contact that night, and he smiled at me. I remember thinking that it was the smile of a bad guy from a horror film. Then Tariq and Musa shook his hand. When they saw me, Musa chased after me."
Cate looked around the table as the Castle team eyed each other. They weren't looks of disbelief. Not really. But shock was a better description. They were shocked that they'd been working for someone like The General.
"It had to be him! I knew he looked familiar. When he lit the cigarette, I could see enough of his face to recognize him, even though he'd had on a mask in that upper room."
"We believe you, Cate," Sully said, and Cate relaxed.
"Until we have more information, though, we need to continue to play our part. I'll have Zach do some digging," he finished. Sully's face softened. "You ready to write that article?"
"Yes, sir. I spoke with the district attorney's office yesterday. Technically, Haney didn't break any laws that they have evidence of. At least, not evidence that was legally obtained. They're following up on the lead with the escort agency. They have warrants to search the computers, but my guess is that The General has had those wiped clean."
"Roger that," Zach said. It's a shame, too. There was enough information on those computers to put several people away for life."
"The good news is that Christy Knox has been placed in witness protection. We're hoping that they can find enough evidence to prosecute Haney. She'll testify if they do. If not, she should be safe," Sully said.
"The DA's office said I'm free to write about my experience with Haney and how I was assigned to him through the escort agency. I can also write about the secret sex society and what I experienced," Cate finished, wishing that the article could be a bit bigger than that, but knowing that hopefully the day would come when Haney, The General, and any others involved in this mess would be put away for good.
Castle Investigations Box Set Page 48