“Stupid fucking doggy.” York didn’t know what effect the juice would have on the dog. It was laced with enough rohypnol and ketamine to keep the girls sexually pliant and a generous dosage of gamma-hydroxybutyrate to ensure their obedience, but York had no data about what it might do to a dog.
He looked down at the animal lying on its side on the concrete floor. “We need to get you somewhere you can sleep it off…” He reached down, brutally grabbed Bruno’s collar, and shook him. The dog seemed bewildered, and when York pulled, Bruno followed him unsteadily outside, growling quietly. York headed directly to an empty outbuilding in a corner of the yard. “In you go. I hope you have a hangover the size of this state when you wake up.” He pushed the dog inside and gave him another swift kick in the rump. Bruno barked in indignation but did not retaliate. Confused and disoriented, the dog limped into a dark corner and curled up on the floor. York put a wooden peg in the door-clasp, shook his head, and cursed again. Whoever heard of a dog getting wasted on date-rape drugs? He returned to the stable, gathered some tools and a length of hose from a workbench, and set about repairing the damage to the vat. It was worse than he’d thought. Realizing the job would take most of the night, he took his phone out of his pocket and called the house, issuing an order for his five best workers to get to the stables — pronto.
Chapter Fourteen
When York didn’t return and several women were summoned with no explanation, the women left in the kitchen became uneasy. The chatter became louder and gradually more unruly. January stood up and tried to restore order, but she was booed, and the women clapped until she sat back down. Lark huddled next to Rissa, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, but it was no good.
September started it. “Wow, honey, what do you have that we don’t?”
“Yeah,” July piped up. “How come York has the hots for you already?”
The other girls joined in, and Lark found herself the victim of a barrage of verbal abuse. She was about to call Zach for help when she felt Rissa’s hand close around hers under the table.
“Come with me,” Rissa whispered. Lark followed her out of the kitchen to a chorus of derisive catcalls, and they went up the stairs to Rissa’s room. “I’m sorry, Lark. I don’t know what’s gotten into them.”
Lark shrugged. “They’re just jealous, I guess. Thanks for getting me out of there.” She smiled and hugged Rissa. “Listen, hon, tell me about the juice. Why’s it so important that you drink it every day?”
Rissa shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s just one of York’s rules. He gets mad if we don’t. And you don’t want to see him when he’s mad.”
Lark could see that the girl was genuinely frightened at the thought of York losing his temper, and she wondered if Rissa had experienced that firsthand. She led her over to the bed, where they sat down side by side.
“Listen,” Lark said, her expression earnest. “I think he’s using the juice to control you. I’ve only had one glass, but already I can feel something going on in my head. We’re in danger here, Rissa. We all are. Zach told me that York has a plan, something called Mission Paradise? I don’t know what it is, but it’s not going to be good.”
Rissa pulled away, her eyes wide with surprise. “You’re working with that SEAL, Zach?”
“Yes, with Zach and his team. They’re waiting outside.”
“But why?” Rissa asked, confused.
“Because Nick asked them to come looking for you,” Lark said softly.
Rissa looked at Lark, puzzled. “What’s my brother got to do with any of this? I was going to write him when I got settled in. Honest I was.”
Lark took a deep breath and swallowed hard. “Your brother is dead, Rissa.” The room went absolutely silent.
Rissa sat on the edge of the bed and stared, speechless and unbelieving, at Lark. After a moment, she said, “That’s not true. Why would you say that?” She was becoming hysterical, and her voice broke an octave higher.
“I’m sorry, Rissa. It was a bomb. In Afghanistan,” Lark said, her eyes beginning to fill up as well.
Rissa burst into tears, clutching at Lark with all her strength. The two women buried their faces in each other’s shoulders and sobbed long and hard. Rissa’s body shook with loss and grief for her brother. Lark held her tight until the initial wave of pain had passed.
“York doesn’t love me.” Rissa’s words came out wet and muffled against the side of Lark’s neck. “He said he did. He swore he did. But when I got here, I found all these other girls.” She pulled away and looked into Lark’s face. “But do you know what the worst thing is?”
Lark shook her head and waited for Rissa to finish.
“He’s never touched me. The entire time I’ve been here, he hasn’t even tried to, not once.”
“Well, maybe that’s a good thing, honey.” Lark reached out and stroked Rissa’s hair. “Do you want to go home now?”
The girl nodded and wiped the tears from her face with her hands.
“Okay. Get your things. Let’s go.”
“They took my stuff. I don’t have anything to take.” Rissa sighed, suddenly looking like a lost and frightened little girl.
Lark took a sheet from the bed and wrapped it around Rissa’s shoulders. Then she said out loud the code words that would bring the Zuma SEALs running.
“Eagle poop.”
Rissa gave her a quizzical look.
“Don’t worry about it; it’s an insider thing,” she said and led Rissa from the room and back down the stairs.
The mood in the kitchen was rowdy. York and the others had still not returned, and the bikini army had grown uneasy. When they saw Lark coming down the stairs with Rissa, January jumped to her feet and pulled a gun from the top of her boot.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” January asked, threatening Lark with the weapon.
“Don’t do anything stupid. I’ve got three hairy-assed SEALs out there, just dying to kick your Amazonian butt. Put the gun down and let us go.” Lark’s voice was firm and confident, and she held January’s gaze evenly. But inside, she shook like a leaf.
“Like hell!” September shouted, and she too pulled a gun from her boot. “You ain’t going nowhere.”
Slowly, Lark placed herself in front of Rissa; she could feel the girl trembling against her back. Where the hell was Zach? Lark knew the men were outside the house at that very moment. They would have followed the conversation over the hidden microphone in her hair, and they’d be very much aware that she had a potential hostage situation going on. Lark tried to guess what the ZSI team would do next. Then it dawned on her. Given their training and mentality, there was only one thing they could do: storm the building. Lark whirled around to face Rissa and threw her full weight against the startled girl.
The two of them crashed to the floor just as the door was kicked open and a tear gas grenade was tossed into the kitchen. Chaos followed. Girls were screaming and crying and running everywhere, trying desperately to avoid the smoke that burned their eyes and throats.
Lark pulled the tablecloth down over her and Rissa’s heads, then lay still on the floor, listening to the pandemonium around them. A shot was fired, and Lark felt a bullet smash into the floorboards beside her. The tear gas began to seep through the cloth. Rissa began to cough and sputter, tears streaming down her face. Then abruptly, they were each grabbed by a pair of strong arms, lifted off the floor, and carried out through the kitchen door into the fresh air.
When the cloth was finally pulled off her head, Lark found herself looking up into a black gas mask. Through the glass eyepieces, she recognized the glint of Zach’s concerned eyes. She gasped for air, turning immediately to see if Rissa was okay, and saw she was. Shocked and frightened, with huge tears streaming down her face, Rissa still found it inside her to give Lark a weak and shaky smile.
Around them, the girls were fleeing in all directions. Lark looked up, alarmed, as Cable and Slice, dressed in the same black fatigues and res
pirator masks, carried two slack bodies from the house and laid them gently on the ground. She recognized the pale, limp bodies of September and January.
“Oh, my god! Are they dead?” Lark almost shrieked.
Slice took off his mask, turned to look at Lark, and shook his head. “Tranquilized,” he said, holding up a sleek, gray dart gun and grinning. “Told you I was an ace shot.”
Horrific screams rent through the night air.
Lark and Rissa shrieked, covering their ears.
“I don’t understand what’s go on.” Rissa trembled, and the two women hugged, wide-eyed, not moving.
Zach ripped off his mask, gun still drawn, motioned to Cable, and they disappeared.
The awful screaming continued, until Lark thought she couldn’t take another second. Then it cut off suddenly and The Farm went eerily silent, and she hated that even more.
She was relieved to hear sirens coming up the dirt trail towards them. A moment later, The Farm was bathed in the psychedelic glow of flashing lights.
Chapter Fifteen
“One thing bothers me,” Slice said, opening a beer and passing it to Cable.
“What’s that?” Cable said.
“How did you get Lark to fall for that magic spell bullshit?”
“Easy,” Cable replied, taking a sip from his beer. “Lark knows there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
“What?” Slice looked baffled.
Zach laughed. “Hamlet, Cable?” he asked with a wry grin.
“Nope. Sitting Bull.”
Zach shook his head and hugged Avalon closer. The campfire crackled in the sand before them and the sound of the surf was a soothing backdrop to the bright, starlit night.
Cable poked at the fire with a long stick. “Steaks are nearly done. Who’s hungry?”
“Me, for one,” Avalon said. She began handing out a stack of paper plates and plastic cutlery.
“Just answer the question, Hamlet, Sitting Bull, or whatever your friggin’ name is tonight,” Slice said. He rolled his eyes and scratched his head.
“Lark is sensitive to the other side. It is easy for her to slip into the spirit world,” Cable replied, flipping the barbecued meat.
“Seriously? So, she actually let you rub blood and eagle poop into her breasts?” Slice asked, still not believing that Lark would allow that kind of thing.
“Yep.” Cable nodded.
“Wow!” Slice sounded amazed.
The group went quiet again. They enjoyed these rare moments on the beach, the campfire, steaks and beer. It was a good way to relax after a hard day’s work.
“Bread, anyone?” Avalon took crispy white rolls from a basket. She handed one to Zach and then tossed Cable and Slice one each, which they easily caught.
Avalon was looking particularly sexy tonight, Zach thought. She had her hair tied back and the flicker of the fire danced in her eyes.
Slice thought of another question. “Um… Cable?”
“What?”
“Where the hell did you get eagle poop?”
“I didn’t.”
“You didn’t?”
“Nope.” A mischievous smile spread across Cable’s face.
“Then what did you use?”
“Chicken poop.”
“Chicken…” Slice spluttered. “And Lark was okay with that?”
“Lark doesn’t know.” Cable grinned, settling back against a rock and closing his eyes.
“Son of a…!” Slice groaned.
“Lark has nice…” Cable added without opening his eyes, extending his hands.
Slice gave him a hard kick.
They ate in silence, easy in each other’s company. Somewhere close to the shore, a boat hooted its lonesome horn.
“Oops! Pardon me,” Avalon said, and the joke was so childishly obvious, they all cracked up and laughed out loud.
Zach caught her in a bear hug and kissed her neck. “You are so silly,” he said, still laughing.
They finished the steaks and Slice handed out another round of beers.
Cable suddenly looked solemn and raised his bottle skywards. “To Nick.”
“To Nick,” they all chorused, then drank under the stars.
“Have you heard from Rissa, Cable?” Avalon asked, leaning forwards into the glow of the fire. The breeze had turned cold, and she wrapped her sweater tighter around herself.
Cable nodded. “She’s staying with Lark until she goes back to college. Wants to study anthropology or something. She seems okay. Told me she hooked up with an old friend –– male.”
“A boyfriend?” Avalon asked dubiously.
“Don’t worry,” Zach reassured her. “I had him checked out. He’s just a harmless kid. Plain and boring.” He took a swig of beer.
“Maybe plain and boring is exactly what she needs after her run-in with York,” Avalon said.
“Eww. I just ate; don’t talk about that freako.” Slice screwed up his face as if he was about to throw up.
“It’s Bruno I feel bad about,” Cable added. “Damn shame they had to put a fine dog like that down.”
“They didn’t have any choice. They tested the dog’s blood, and it had a ton of chemicals in it — the same ones as in the juice — and they think that’s what screwed the dog up. Did any of you actually see York’s body after Bruno finished with him?” Zach asked.
“Nope, wanna share?” Cable asked him, poking a stick at the dying embers of the fire.
Zach paused, then said quietly, “Well, let’s just say there wasn’t much of his face left.”
“No…” Avalon whispered and put a hand over her mouth. “I didn’t need to hear that.”
The wind began to pick up, and a chill swept the beach. It was almost time to go. Avalon gathered the empty plates and tossed them into a plastic garbage bag.
“According to local cops, one of the girls heard the dog whining in the outbuilding. She said he’d been locked in and she was unsure why, as it had never happened before. She let him out.” Zach shrugged. “Of course, she couldn’t have known Bruno would go straight after York the way he did.”
“How is the investigation going, by the way?” Cable asked Avalon.
She nudged Zach with her foot. “You can tell them.”
He stood up and brushed the sand from his legs. Cable and Slice followed his lead.
“It’s complicated,” Zach said. “All the girls have been sent to rehab to get clean of that horrific cocktail of drugs York was feeding them, and they’re trying to contact the families. The Nebraska authorities are following up on Lark’s lead on that girl that drowned there. Thanks to Bruno, the taxpayers have been saved the expense of a trial.”
“I suppose…” Avalon grimaced. She took his hand and began pulling him up the beach towards the house.
Slice kicked sand onto the fire, and then he and Cable collected the empty beer bottles into a wooden bucket.
“Zach, if Avalon’s staying the night, could you keep the noise down, please?” Slice called out.
He and Cable began to chuckle.
Chapter Sixteen
Zach and Avalon walked down the beach hand in hand, leaving a trail of footprints in the sand behind them. They heard the start of engines; Cable and Slice were headed to their homes, south down the highway. When they reached the beach house, they stopped, and Zach turned her towards him and kissed her, demanding and without finesse, shooting anticipation into her belly.
“Don’t pay attention to them. They enjoy their own humor.” The corners of his eyes wrinkled with mirth.
“I don’t care. I would’ve nudged you to leave earlier if there had been a pause in the conversation.” They kissed again, and Avalon sighed. “You know I have to get up early tomorrow?”
“Work?” Zach grunted.
Avalon nodded, looking towards the surf. “I start a new trial in the morning. You don’t mind, do you, Zach?”
“I’m very proud of you. I want you to kick
ass in that courtroom.” Zach led her up the porch to the house. They turned and looked up at the sky.
“It’s a beautiful night,” Avalon said and sighed, pressing her body against Zach’s.
“And you’re a beautiful woman.”
“We’re beautiful people.”
They laughed and Zach dropped the garbage bag, letting it fall on the porch. In one swift and fluid movement, he bent and picked Avalon off her feet, holding her close to his chest.
“Ooh! Zach!” she gasped, surprised.
He carried her into the beach house. “If you have to leave early tomorrow, then we have no time to lose.” He carried her through the house to his room, opening and closing the door with his foot, and then dropping her on the bed.
“Yes…” Avalon breathed, reaching up to him. “Take me… please.”
“Take me please, what?” Zach said and began stripping off his clothes.
“Take me please, sir?” Avalon said.
Zach fell onto her, his hands dispensing with her clothes and his mouth pressing against the pulse in her throat. “Good girl, Avalon. You are my very good girl,” Zach said in a powerful, growling whisper.
About the Author
Deborah Brown is an Amazon bestselling author of the Paradise series. She lives on the Gulf of Mexico, with her ungrateful animals, where Mother Nature takes out her bad attitude in the form of hurricanes.
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