by Stasia Black
Um. Audrey thought that might be up for debate.
But enough of that.
Whoever they were, they must not have thought Audrey was much of a threat because they’d only handcuffed her. Just her hands, too. Not even her feet. They hadn’t even stripped her down either.
Their mistake.
She immediately reached down to her shoe and pulled out the pin she kept shoved in the worn sole. “How long have I been out?” she asked crazy lady.
But crazy lady was suddenly sitting up and at attention as Audrey fiddled with her handcuff lock, especially when a few seconds later, got it to click free.
“Hour, hour fifteen, tops.” She suddenly looked very alert. “Where’d you learn to do that?”
“My brother taught me. Where are we?”
“Pelican island. This used to be the old—”
“A&M Marine biology department,” Audrey finished for her. “I heard.” She made a sour face. “I mean where on the island are we? And what the hell is going on? I thought this place was supposed to be a sanctuary for women?”
This time it was the other woman’s face who soured. “I’ll explain everything. While you get your ass over here with that lock pick.”
Audrey nodded, shaking off the cuffs and hurrying over to the woman. “I’m Audrey, by the way.”
“Drea.” She held her manacled hands to Audrey but Audrey paused.
“Like the Drea who founded Nomansland, Drea?”
Drea’s mouth became a hard line. “The one and only. Long story short, they took over about eleven months ago. After my tenth escape attempt, they stopped putting me in rooms with windows. Hence, this beautiful supply closet.”
“Who’s they?” Audrey asked, fiddling with the lock on Drea’s first manacle. The lock was larger than she was used to, so it took a little more work figuring out how to hit the tumblers with the pin but eventually she got it.
Drea yanked the pin out of Audrey’s hand and started working on her other wrist manacle. “Pig-faced bastards. Spineless sacks of shit. You know, men.” The lock popped open and she immediately leaned down to her ankles.
“Okay, so we just get the door and then—” Audrey said but Drea was already shaking her head.
“They put chains on it from the outside, too. Can’t just pop the lock.”
At Audrey’s exasperated gasp, Drea just held a hand up. “Look, let’s just say I was very determined to escape and they’re very determined to keep me here. I know, I know, why not just kill me? Trust me,” her face darkened even further, though Audrey wouldn’t have thought that was possible. “They’re plenty of people here who would be more than happy to see that happen. There’s just a larger number to whom I’m worth more alive than dead. But my buyers have apparently requested that I be made more ‘compliant’ first. Either that or they’re just trying to drive me fucking nuts.”
“Ahh, there,” she said, rubbing her raw and damaged ankles after she got them free. Slowly, she got to her feet. She was wearing rags, almost literally. Her shirt, if you could call it that, was a foul brown color and it looked like the stitches were barely holding together. Her pants were little better. Maybe they’d once been yoga pants or pajamas or something, because the cotton was worn so thin you could see the outline of her body through them.
Audrey couldn’t imagine what the woman had been through in the last eleven months. And she didn’t particularly want to. Because that might lead to thinking about what could happen to her if they didn’t get the hell out of here.
“How close were to making it out on your last escape attempt? Do you know where they keep the boats? Are the keys in them or do we need to—”
“Shhhh,” Drea suddenly hissed, her whole body going alert. Then she waved at Audrey to be still. “The guard’s coming. Hands behind your back. Against the wall.”
Audrey followed Drea’s instructions and then Drea leaned forward and blew out the candle.
The next second, the chains outside the door rattled.
Holy crap, already? What was she supposed to do? Should she try to grab the guy? Would he have a gun? How were they going to—
The door opened and light poured in the tiny space.
“How’s my favorite bitch to—”
Drea ran straight at the big, pot-bellied guy, letting out a bansheelike war cry.
Even though the guy had to have almost eighty pounds on her, she tackled him backwards to the ground. She didn’t waste any time, either. She grabbed his head by his ears, lifted it, and then smashed it into the ground—once, then again. And again. And again.
By the time she was done, bits of brain were scattered on the floor and the front of Drea’s shirt was covered in blood.
Holy shit.
For a second, Audrey was frozen.
Fucking move.
It was like she heard Nix’s voice shouting at her in her head.
She listened, scrambling forward. She did a quick check, but it didn’t look like the guard had a weapon, so she pulled at Drea’s arm. Drea still had hold of the guy’s head, looking like she was going to continue hulk smashing it.
“You got him. He’s dead. Come on.” When Drea still didn’t move, Audrey yanked harder on her arm. “Come on.”
Finally Drea crawled backwards and stood up, slipping in the guy’s blood and almost falling. Audrey helped her up.
“Where do we go now?” Audrey asked.
For a second, Drea looked around them, seeming dazed.
“Hey.” Audrey snapped in front of her face a few times. “Get it together. I need you to tell me which way to go.”
Drea blinked and nodded, taking a deep breath. “Okay. Okay.” She looked around them. “We’re in the southern hallway of the old student center. When we get to the end, we can head down the stairs and get the other girls out. Then we’ll—”
Her words were cut off by the sound of boots in the hallway. Oh crap, they were about to have more company. Drea obviously heard it too because she’d finally seemed to get with the program. She was sprinting toward the end of the hallway, Audrey on her heels.
Audrey could clearly see the door marked Stairs directly in front of them. Almost there.
But right as she was reaching for the handle, it jerked open from the other side.
To the faces of twenty or fifteen soldiers, all waiting with guns raised.
Audrey’s hands immediately went up.
But it was like Drea just went crazy. The guards poured out of the stairwell, surrounding them, and Drea started kicking and swinging and snarling curses at all of them. “You’ll have to kill me this time, you sons of bitches! Just try and lay a fucking hand on me!”
Two soldiers grabbed Audrey from behind, yanking her arms so roughly behind her back she thought they might have dislocated one of her shoulders. She yelped in pain and could only watch on in horror as the others converged on Drea.
She got a couple good hits in but there were simply too many of them. It wasn’t long before her arms were wrenched behind her back too. They forced her down on her knees, and from the other end of the hallway, a tall, muscular man dressed all in black approached.
He clapped as he came.
“Quite a performance this time, my dear. As always, you never cease to entertain.” He walked right up to Drea and then grabbed her chin between his forefinger and thumb. “So much fire and it never goes out, does it?” His tone was a mix of mockery and grudging admiration. Who the hell was this guy?
Drea yanked away from his touch and then spit on him.
The man threw back his head and laughed. The soldiers, still with their weapons against their shoulders, looked at each other uneasily.
Then the laughter abruptly stopped and the man swung out with a vicious punch, slamming Drea’s frail body into the floor.
Audrey screamed and jerked against the soldiers who held her back.
Which brought the man’s attention to her. He turned her way and tilted his head. “And who do we have here? Who
’s little Drea’s new playmate?”
He approached with the slyness of a snake and Audrey immediately went cold. This guy was a fucking sociopath.
“She hasn’t made an escape attempt in over three months. I thought I might have finally beat her into submission. So good to know she was just waiting for another little accomplice. She’s always had such a soft spot for strays.”
He traced his forefinger down Audrey’s cheek. She trembled with revulsion. She wanted to be bold like Drea and spit in his face but she wasn’t sure the act of defiance was worth the inevitable blow that would follow.
Turned out, she should have gone for it, because the next second, the man grabbed her by the back of the hair and then started dragging her forward.
By her hair.
Fuuuuuuuuuuck!
She howled in pain, reaching up and trying to bat his hands away. But he just kept pulling her inexorably forward.
Ow. Oh God.
Oh it hurt so bad. If she could just get to her feet. Even her knees. Anything to take the pressure off her scalp.
But whenever she got close to catching her balance, he only yanked harder.
She screamed again. How had her hair not all ripped out by the roots by now?
What would they do to her? She wasn’t naïve. She’d always known what would happen if she ended up captured and in a place like this. Exactly what had happened to Mateo. And Nix’s sister. Would it get to the point where they’d eventually brutalize her so much that she’d lose her mind and prefer blowing her brains out to continuing to take another breath?
At least Nix would never know.
There was the tiniest bit of comfort in that at least.
Didn’t mean she didn’t continue screaming and fighting like a wild animal to get free of the psychotic bastard’s grasp.
Drea shouted behind her but the man just kept dragging her away by her hair. Tears poured from her eyes and her throat was already raw from screaming.
Oh God oh God. Please. Please.
She didn’t know what she was praying for but it was all she could think.
Please, just please, pl—
BOOM!
An explosion rocked the building.
Chapter 41
NIX
Thirty Minutes Earlier
“She’s not coming back,” Mateo said, staring after where Audrey went.
“Let’s give her an hour,” Nix said, eyes fixed the same direction. They’d both been staring at the same patch of trees for forty-five minutes now.
“She’s not coming back.” Mateo reached out and put a hand on Nix’s shoulder but Nix jerked away.
“We stay the full hour.”
Mateo nodded, holding his hands up. “No argument from me.”
The satellite phone rang. It wasn’t the first time. Nix had picked up about ten minutes after Audrey left. Apparently the Commander had called almost as soon as they’d taken off but they couldn’t hear him because of the noise.
Suffice to say, the Commander was less than pleased with their borrowing his helicopter. Nix informed him they’d bring it back in a few hours but, not surprisingly, that did little to pacify him.
Meanwhile he’d been standing here with Mateo staring at the trees, thinking every shifting branch was Audrey returning through the woods. Coming back to them.
It never was.
He’d felt like simultaneously throwing up and beating the shit out of something or someone the second she’d disappeared out of his sight.
But he hadn’t run after her with the dart gun—which yes, he’d brought along with him. And he hadn’t started beating the shit out of Mateo—because how the fuck could he let her go? He was her husband too. Why hadn’t the bastard made some grand gesture right at the end to convince her to stay?
Anyway, in the end, nothing worked. Not him opening up and finally telling her all his personal feelings. Admitting for the first time out loud that he loved her.
It hadn’t mattered.
She’d still left.
So if the Commander was calling back to bitch at him some more, he could go fuck himself.
“What?” Nix snapped after flipping the sat phone open.
“Nix? Where’s Audrey? You have to stop Audrey!”
Nix’s whole body went rigid at Graham’s frantic voice.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Mateo responded to his tone, swinging his way. What? he mouthed, but Nix just shook his head, turning away so he could focus on what Graham was saying.
“I kept thinking about it. The GPS chip we put in the pudding we fed Audrey so we could track her. What if someone else did the same thing? Anyone could track the location just like we are.”
“So I went deeper in the web. Deeper than deep. I pretended to be a member of this elite club and posed as a buyer—”
“Enough,” Nix shouted. “What the fuck did you find out? Where’s Audrey?”
“Nomansland used to be real. A colony for women. But about a year ago, it was attacked and taken over by the Black Skulls MC who are major allies with—”
“Travis,” Nix filled in, spitting the name and looking in the direction Audrey had walked almost an hour ago. Nix went cold. Absolutely fucking ice cold.
“Activate her GPS.”
“Already did.”
“So where the fuck is she?”
“Pelican island. It’s not far from where you are.”
Graham gave him the coordinates and he repeated them to Mateo, both of them jogging toward the chopper.
Mateo pulled out his GPS device and punched in the coordinates on the screen.
“I’ll call you again when we have her,” Nix said, then hung up the sat phone.
While Mateo finished with preflight prep, Nix jumped back down from the chopper down to the medical litter on the left.
Nix pulled back the tarp. It wasn’t a crash test dummy under there. It was a small arsenal.
He undid the straps and grabbed several machine guns and swung them over his back.
And then he leaned over and hefted up the shoulder rocket launcher.
When he hauled it inside the chopper, Mateo just gave him once glance and shook his head. “The Commander is gonna be so pissed.”
Nix strapped himself in as Mateo fiddled with the instruments. “He’ll get over it.”
Anything would be worth it. Anything. As long as he got Audrey back safe and sound. Then, for a second he couldn’t breathe.
Because what if, yet again, he was too late to save the one person he loved most in the world?
Chapter 42
AUDREY
The explosion knocked the bastard holding Audrey off his feet. Audrey didn’t know what the hell was going on, but she knew he’d finally let her go.
She stumbled to her feet, grabbing for the wall. The candles in the wall sconces had gotten knocked loose and at least one of them had fallen and started a small fire.
Whoosh.
Make that a big fire.
The nearby curtains caught flame and it suddenly lit up like a damn Christmas tree. Then the gunfire started.
Audrey swung around to look back at the group of soldiers, scooting back to the wall as she did so. Who the hell was shooting gun right after—
Oh.
It was Drea.
She must have gotten one of their machine guns during the confusion of the bomb blast and damn was she taking her revenge.
The man who’d been dragging Audrey by her hair bolted the opposite direction down the hall the way he’d come, disappearing into the smoke now billowing down the hallway.
Audrey wanted to call out to Drea but she didn’t dare distract her. She had a gun, yeah, but so did the men surrounding her.
That was a fact that seemed lost on them, however. They either dropped where they stood or fled toward the stairwell. Where the hell had they found these guys? Cowards R Us?
Whatever, at least they were catching a break. Audrey ran toward Drea to—
well, she didn’t know what the hell she’d do once she got to her. But they were getting the hell out of here, that was for sure.
Drea ran out of ammo right as one of the last few soldiers seemed to get his shit together. He raised his gun directly at Drea’s head.
Audrey tackled him from behind just before he could shoot.
Drea only froze for a second before attacking one of the other few still-standing soldiers. The third decided to go the way of his colleagues and ran away.
Thank God because Audrey wasn’t sure how many more acts of heroism she had in her today.
She did manage to snatch the machine gun the soldier she’d tackled had dropped before he could.
“Drea,” she shouted, passing off the gun to the more experienced marksman.
Just in time too, because the next second, another figure appeared in the stairwell door.
But then Audrey’s mouth dropped open.
She knew those tall, muscular shoulders. She’d memorized the shape of them, spent hours kissing up and down them.
“Ni—” she started to say, but just then, Drea jerked the machine gun up, ready to shoot.
“No!” Audrey threw herself in front of Nix. “This is my husband.”
Drea’s eyes narrowed in suspicion and she didn’t drop her gun.
“Drea,” Audrey shouted, grabbing the tip of the gun and shoving it down.
“We gotta go,” Nix shouted. “Our little distraction’s only gonna last so long. Mateo’s waiting with the chopper.”
Audrey nodded. “Come on.” She waved to Drea.
“Not without the rest of the women,” Drea said stubbornly. “I’m not leaving without the others.”
“Sorry, lady,” Nix said impatiently, eyes flicking up and down the hallway. “We’ve only got space for one more body. You’ll be riding on a med bay litter as it is.”
Drea stood up straighter, nodding rigidly. “Okay. Then one of the girls should go in my place. Elena. She’s been cracking under all the abuse. She won’t last much longer. They’re holding her downstairs. We just need to get past Tillerman’s office, it’s just a little further down and to the right. Come on, I can show you.”