JT shakes his head. “Nope, that’s not how this is going to work. Regardless of the girl’s rescue, you need to get out from under, and we can’t help. If Ms. Manning does any digging, she’ll find my association with Sean. I’m only agreeing to help you because of him. I owe him my life.”
“Did Sean give you any instructions?”
“All he said was the place that was hidden from you for three years.”
Smiling, I know exactly what he’s referring to. When our brother, Maddock, was in witness protection, he lived in a cabin in the mountains near Breckenridge. If Tula is alive, that’s where he’ll meet me. And I guess, if she’s dead, he’ll meet me there by himself.
“Are you ready?” asks JT as the SUV lurches forward.
“Yeah.” Staring straight ahead, I voice my worst fear, “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
“We don’t know that yet, you’ve gotta keep hope. Sometimes, it’s all we have,” replies JT.
“Her real name is Tula. Don’t tell Manning. If you find her, tell her Angus is waiting for her.”
“When we find her,” corrects JT.
Tula
My bottom lip throbs, my body is sore, and I’m exhausted. I can’t look at Violet, who’s whimpering in the corner. Her screams will haunt my dreams for an incredibly long time. Locutus realized I was stalling, and they beat her severely. Then three of his men took turns raping her while I was forced to watch.
It was horrific.
Violet was nothing but a piece of meat they took turns with, laughing and hurting her, seemingly getting off on her screams of pain. I closed my eyes, and they hurt her worse.
After that, I stopped stalling.
Locutus now has the coordinates of every base I could find.
Violet and I are back in the closet, but they’ve left the light on. I’m sure he did this to torture me so I’d be forced to stare at her. I can’t. If I’m not focusing on my own hands, I close my eyes so I don’t have to look at Violet. I’m too scared to see if anyone is posted outside our door, so I haven’t even checked to see if it’s locked.
Have you ever been so depleted and mentally drained that you can’t sleep? My brain won’t turn off, not that I could sleep, anyway. The fear of what they’ll do to Violet or me is the foremost thought running continuously on a loop. The main torturer is a sadist fuck that needs to die a slow, agonizing death.
“Landru?”
I open my eyes, focusing on my hands. “Yeah, Violet?”
“He’s going to kill us now, isn’t he?”
I nod, simply because I don’t want to say those words out loud. I’ve given him everything he wants. Locutus has probably already deployed men to raid the bases. If only I hadn’t needed to know about my brother’s death. If the army had just come clean.
If…
So many scenarios run through my head.
The one image I cling to and hope he’ll find me is Archon—Angus. Archon suits him better than Angus. He’s one of the few people on the dark web who turned out to be a nice guy. I wish I’d gotten to know him better. And not just the fake stuff we all put out there but the genuine stuff—the warts-and-all stuff.
The door to the closet opens a crack, and Violet and I jump. A man’s face with black paint smeared across his features peers in. Pushing the door further open, he enters and quickly shuts it behind him. He’s dressed in black with weapons strapped all over him, and in his hands is an assault rifle. I think it’s an HK416.
“Can you walk?”
I stare up at him. His voice is familiar.
“Tula, can you walk?” He crouches in front of me, his hands on my face, and it’s then I realize it’s Sean. Tears spring from my eyes, and I wrap my hands around his neck and sob.
“Shh, shh… we don’t have time for this. We need to move.”
“H-How did you find me?”
“Angus.” He disentangles himself from me and stands. “And the help of a special forces team. Angus found you in this room using infrared. They’re about to storm the building, but I need to get you out of here before that happens.” He looks at his watch. “We have two minutes before hell rains down.”
He holds out a hand to me, and on shaky legs, I stand. Still unable to look at her, I point at Violet. “What about her?”
“My mission is you. The special forces can get her out. Right now, we need to move.” He cracks the door and peers out. “Where I move, you move. No matter what, you stay with me. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Can you handle a gun?” He doesn’t wait for me to respond. Sean unclips it and hands it to me. “The safety is off. You keep it pointed at the floor unless there are unfriendlies about. Do not shoot me.”
“D-Don’t leave me,” whispers Violet.
Sean glances at her. “Stay put, ma’am. Help is coming.” He looks down at me. “Put your free hand on my shoulder and keep up.”
Sean opens the door, and we move as one as he makes it through the maze of corridors, occasionally stopping to listen to the sounds around us or the people talking on his headset. An enormous explosion causes me to yelp and back away from him.
“Here we go. Stay close.”
Gunfire echoes through the building, none of it close to where we are, but terrifying, nonetheless. Suddenly, sunlight hits my face, and using his arm, Sean pushes me against the side of the building as he also flattens himself against it.
“You with me?”
“Yes.”
“This is the hard part. We’re going to go around the side of this building, then we have thirty feet of barren land to cross. We’ll be exposed. No matter what happens, you keep running. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Sean spares me a look, then disappears around the side of the building. The moment I follow him, bullets impact the side of the wall, sending debris into the surrounding air.
“Move!” yells Sean.
He points to a gate that is opposite us. Fight or flight takes hold, and I run for the gate and hopefully to safety. Bullets penetrate the earth around me, sending tufts of dirt and grass into the air. With my hands over my head, I run. I’m screaming, but I don’t stop. There are footsteps behind me, and I’m too scared to turn to see if it’s Sean or someone else. I’m so scared, I run straight into the gate and end up on the ground on my ass, momentarily stunned.
“Get up!” orders Sean as he returns fire and opens the gate.
Crawling, I get to my feet and run. I have no idea where I’m going, but the sounds of gunfire begin to fade.
“Stop.”
At the command from Sean, I come to a skidding halt and then look at him. He has a gash on his temple with blood dripping from it. He’s breathing hard, taking in his surroundings, then his gaze lands on me.
A frown creases his black-smudged face. “You got hit.”
I shake my head. “There’s no pain. I don’t feel any pain.”
“It’s the adrenaline.” Sean drops to a crouching position and opens a compartment on his vest. He pulls out a needle and uses his teeth to pull off the protective cap. “This is morphine. It’ll help until we can patch you up properly.”
Then he injects it into my thigh. I don’t even feel it go in. Next, he opens another pouch and presses a wad of gauze to my side. Looking down, I see blood as it oozes through the white gauze. “It doesn’t hurt.”
Sean places one of my hands on the gauze, then turns me around. “It’s a through and through.”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
I can hear and feel him attaching something to my back, then he turns me around and fixes the bloody gauze at my front with tape.
“Tula, we’ve gotta keep moving. Can you do that?” he asks as he stands.
“Yeah, it doesn’t hurt,” I repeat like a broken record.
“That’s good.” Sean puts both hands on my face, forcing me to look into his eyes. “You did good.”
His hands drop, and he does a quick recon of the surrounding area. With a
grunt, he taps his shoulder, signaling me to place my hand there, and he moves. We aren’t running, we’re moving at a quick pace, but there are buildings, doorways, and potential threats around every corner. Sean keeps us moving until we come upon a black van. That’s when he stops and opens the side door. “Get in.”
Climbing into the passenger side, I mechanically put on my seat belt.
Sean slams the door and jogs around to the driver’s side. “We haven’t hit a home run yet. We still have to make it out of the city.”
I don’t answer him as I rest my head back. Sean starts the van, and we drive through the windy streets of this town. I have no idea where we are. As he drives, Sean uses wipes on his face to remove the black gunk.
He’s stopped at a crossroads when I look out my passenger side window and see my torturer crossing the street. Without thinking, I unbuckle my seat belt and open the door.
“Tula!” yells Sean, but I run toward the man.
At the sound of Sean’s yelling, he turns around, and a look of surprise crosses his face, then he smirks. His smirk turns into a frown as I raise the gun in my hand and empty the bullets into his chest. People around us are screaming and running away. I’m still pulling the trigger when arms engulf me, lifting me up and backward. My eyes are fixed on the man on the street, whose chest is a bloody mess. His eyes are wide open, and he’s making a gurgling noise as he tries to breathe. Sean throws me into the passenger seat and slams the door shut.
“Fuck,” he hisses as he accelerates through the streets. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“You’re sorry? This was a clean van. Now, I have to ditch it and find an alternative way out of town.”
“He needed to die.”
Sean slams on the brakes, and I slide forward into the dash. “Out of the van. Now!”
I do as I’m told and once again follow behind Sean. His gun is pointed at the ground. He isn’t running but walking briskly, his head on a permanent swivel as he takes in everything and everyone as he looks for potential threats.
Sean walks into a parking garage and straight up to an older model Honda CR-V, its white paint covered in dust and mud.
“This’ll do. Get in.”
Walking around to the passenger side, I try to open the door, but it’s locked. Looking at Sean, he shakes his head, then smashes the window open on the driver’s side. He climbs in and leans across, unlocking the door for me.
“Give me the gun.” I hand it over, and he puts it into the console between us. “Who was he?”
Sean is hunched over the steering wheel, attempting to hotwire the car.
“He was the man who took me from the cabin. He hit me… h-he did worse to Violet.”
Sean grunts as the car comes to life. “He the one who killed Arrow?”
“I don’t know.”
“Fucker got what he deserved. You’ve got some balls on you, girl. But don’t do it again until we’re safe, yeah?”
I shake my head. “None of us are safe.”
Sean has the car in drive and is navigating us to safety. “What do you mean?”
Tears run down my face. “I gave Locutus the locations of the other bases.”
Sean slams on the brakes, and I again collide with the dash.
He glances at me. “Fuck!”
“Violet, they used Violet to get to me. The things they did to her…” My throat closes up, and I cry. Loud sobs make their way out of me, and I can’t stop.
Sean drives at breakneck speed. “Put on your seat belt,” he orders.
I put it on and curl into a ball on the seat, trying to stifle my cries. Sean continues to drive and comes to a screeching halt near an airstrip. He pulls a cell phone out of his pocket and dials. His gaze is fixed on a hangar in the distance.
“Locutus got the locations of the bases.” He glances at me. “She’s hit.” He pauses in conversation, listening to the other person. “Be calm.” Sean winces and holds the phone away from his ear. “Okay, okay.” He holds it out to me. “It’s Angus. He wants to talk to you.”
With a shaking hand, I take it off him and hold it to my ear. “I’m sorry.”
“Fuck that. You’re alive. Can we track him?”
“Yes.”
“Give it to me.”
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath. I memorized the IP address and recite it to Angus.
“Good. Now, get yourself somewhere safe and disconnected.”
“Okay.”
“Landru?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll find you.”
The line goes dead, and I hand it to Sean, who throws it out the window and drives back the way we came.
“We aren’t going to fly home?”
“Not from here. They’ll be tracing the phone. Teams have probably already been deployed to find us. We’ve gotta keep moving, ditch this car, find another one, and with the grace of God, make it home.”
Angus
They didn’t catch Locutus at the location we thought he was in. The slippery fucker was long gone. They found a woman, badly beaten, who’s in the makeshift infirmary they have set up. The men tell me she was tortured. She had to be sedated. I’m hoping when she wakes, she turns out to be Chuck’s mom.
JT’s team was deployed to find Tula and Sean. Although they didn’t know it was Sean, I had to tell them that Tula gave me the IP address for Locutus. There was no reason for them to believe me. How would I know something like that without her help? Of course, I didn’t tell Charlotte Manning Tula’s actual name. They still refer to her as Landru.
Escape for me isn’t an option until Locutus is caught.
“How the fuck did she get your number?” asks Charlotte in a steely tone.
“No fucking idea. Luck?”
“Who was with her?”
“She didn’t say.”
Charlotte purses her lips together and looks around the room. “I smell a fucking rat, and if I find out who it is, you’ll be in a deep dark fucking hole until I decide what to do with you.”
JT shrugs. “Does it matter? The kid came through. He got us the information on Locutus, and we need to move and now. He’s holed up fifty miles from us.”
“Agreed,” replies Charlotte tersely. “Bring him back to me for interrogation.”
“You want him alive?” I ask.
“He’s been at the front of more than one terrorist attack. The information he possesses is invaluable in bringing down an entire network.”
“What if he’s already passed on the information?”
“We’re prepared for that.”
Charlotte says no more and storms out of the room. JT has his hands in his pockets, raises his eyebrows, and shakes his head.
“We good?” asks JT, wanting to know if Sean and Tula are safe without actually asking for details.
“Yeah.”
He nods and pushes off the wall he’s been leaning against. “Time to mount up. Let’s go nab us a bad guy.”
JT told Charlotte I had to go with them. I’m all suited up in a bulletproof vest and army fatigues, with a laptop to trace the IP address for Locutus. He’s in a house with no other buildings around.
We all get out of the truck. JT checks to make sure my vest is on correctly.
“You stay here. Talk to us through this.” He taps the headset on my head.
“Got it.”
JT nods, and with guns up, his men separate into three different groups, converging on the house all at once. The laptop that’s connected to the IP address hasn’t moved. Gunfire sounds in the distance while I’m holding my breath, waiting for the men to give the all-clear, when I see JT walk out of the house, a grin on his face.
Now would be a good time to disappear, but I want to see them capture Locutus. I want to see his face and let him know it was me who found him. The rest of the team comes out of the house with three men, all wearing black hoods over their heads and their hands zip-tied behind them. They are hustled
into the truck, and JT hands me a laptop.
“Is this it? It was the only one we could find.”
I open it, quickly going through its systems. “Yeah, this is it.” It’s filled with information about me and the possible locations of the bases.
“Go sit up front,” orders JT.
I nod and move to sit with the driver. The entire way back to Charlotte, I’m skimming information off the laptop, but unfortunately, all the information for the bases has been passed on to a shell corporation. It’s one front after another. Finding the true owners will take time.
My cell rings and I answer it.
“What have you found?” asks Charlotte.
“He passed on the locations of the bases.”
“I figured as much. We’ve disassembled one, and the others are on high alert.”
“Why haven’t you disassembled all of them?”
“We will eventually, but they deal in some dangerous hardware. It takes time.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
“No.”
“Good, we can do it together.”
Charlotte wouldn’t let me enter the interrogation room. Instead, she goes in with JT. The man sitting in the chair looks like the grainy photograph she showed me. The one thing I wasn’t expecting is for him to be scared. His eyes are darting around the room, and his white T-shirt is dirty with smeared blood and grime.
I’m sitting on the opposite side of the two-way glass, observing all three of them.
JT is standing in the corner of the room behind the suspect with his arms crossed, a permanent scowl etched on his face. Charlotte is sitting opposite him. Patrick Lau can’t look her in the eyes. He’s fidgeting in the seat, and eventually, he chews on his nails and fixes his gaze on the tabletop.
This doesn’t feel right.
The Locutus I know was arrogant, self-assured, and this man is none of those things.
Charlotte clears her throat, and for the briefest of moments, his eyes go to her, but then he quickly stares back at the table.
“Give me the names of everyone you’re working with, and I’ll try to help you.” He doesn’t look at her. “Patrick, I’m trying to help you.”
Spark of Deception: MacKenny Brothers Series Book 4: An MC/Band of Brothers Romance Page 11