by Lara Adrian
From the front seat, Alec cleared his throat. “Ranger, stop molesting the captive. There’s our drop location up ahead. White building on the right.”
It didn’t look like much, particularly in the dark. No signage out front. Extremely private. Lights were on inside the building, but blinds obscured every window. Three stories high, set back from the main road, it was the kind of place that didn’t invite casual visitors.
Lisa weathered a chill as they approached the turn for the entrance. “What is it, a lab of some kind?”
John gave a grim nod. “The government kind. The worst kind.” Frowning, he picked up the zip ties in one hand. With the other, he lightly stroked her cheek. “You sure you’re okay about this?”
No, she wasn’t. Not really. She was only realizing that just now. But the only way out of this nightmare was through it. “I’m sure. I’m ready.”
She pivoted to give him access to her hands behind her back. He secured her wrists, then tore off a strip of tape and placed it over her mouth.
John’s lips pressed warmly behind her ear. “Okay, baby. Last part. Here we go.”
He blew out a low curse. Then he placed the black hood over her head.
~ ~ ~
An armed security guard came out of the shack at the entrance gate as Alec slowed to a stop at the barricade and slid his window down. And as Duarte expected, the man approaching the SUV with a holstered firearm at his side was indeed on the government payroll.
“Got a delivery for this address,” Alec told the U.S. Army soldier.
The guy motioned for him to roll down the back window. Lisa was already struggling and whimpering, playing her role like a pro, as the dark glass glided down. Duarte held the pistol against her hooded head.
The guard gave him a curt nod, then glanced back to Alec. “Deliveries around back. West loading dock.”
As soon as the windows were up and their wheels were rolling through the checkpoint, Duarte caressed her shoulder. “Good job, sweetheart. We’re heading around to the back of the building now.”
He talked her through each second of their approach, needing her to hear his voice, to believe they were going to make it through this ordeal. They had to. He’d let her go once before; he wasn’t about to make that same mistake again.
And if fate had other plans, fate was welcome to get fucked.
“We’re approaching the west loading dock,” he murmured. “Someone’s waiting for us at the door. He’s motioning us into the bay now, Lisa.”
The tall, athletic looking man in the white lab coat stood in the open door as Alec parked the Escalade and killed the engine. Duarte barely resisted the urge to check the weapons he wore on his person, some in plain view as would be expected, others concealed in his pockets and strapped to his limbs.
“Let’s rock n’ roll,” Alec said, his face lowered to conceal the movement of his lips from the man observing them in the open doorway. He got out of the vehicle and walked back to open Lisa’s door.
Duarte gave her thigh a tender squeeze. “Here we go, baby. You’re gonna be just fine. I promise you.”
Holding the pistol to her head as she climbed out with him behind her, Duarte weathered the stabbing pain of his shoulder injury. The bullet hole that had ripped through his flesh still hurt like a bitch, but what killed him even more was the feeling that his heart was carrying an open wound.
As much as he wanted to pretend the SIG he and Alec saw jammed up against Lisa’s temple was the unloaded one he held in his hand now, Duarte knew it wasn’t.
And he couldn’t shake the sense that the reality their vision had predicted now waited for them inside.
He and Alec walked Lisa up to the door. The man waiting there stared at them in clear distaste as he gestured for them to step in. Once inside, he used the access card hanging around his neck to secure the door behind them.
Without permission or preamble, their unfriendly greeter pulled the hood off Lisa’s head. She moaned behind the tape that silenced her, and her eyes were wide with terror—real or for effect, Duarte didn’t need to know. He could hardly stand there, all of his protective instincts at war with the need to play things cool.
The guy looked her over from head to foot, his tongue darting out to wet his thin lips. He grunted in leering approval and Duarte had the fierce and sudden urge to kill the bastard on the spot.
“Come with me,” the man instructed them. He started leading them up an empty corridor, his side glance taking in Duarte and Alec’s bloodied clothing. He chuckled. “Thought you guys were supposed to be professionals. Looks like you had your asses handed to you tonight.”
Duarte growled. “Thought you guys said it would be an easy smash and grab. We had to take out half a dozen armed men to get to her. Lost Captain Jensen and two other teammates back there.”
“Tell it to the boss when you see him. I’m just the doorman.”
“We’ll be glad to,” Alec snarled. “Someone needs to tell him how fucked up this op was. Hope the bitch is worth it.”
The guard chuckled, a sadistic rumble of humor. “I hope she is, too. For her sake... and for his.”
As he said it, he indicated the room they were approaching. A room with half-glass walls and a lone occupant inside. The man lay in restraints on a narrow bed, almost skeletal. Gaunt nearly beyond recognition.
Kyle Becker.
Lisa screamed, but the tape throttled her broken cry.
Now Kyle saw them, too. He lifted up off the mattress as best he could, wild-eyed, miserable. The instant his dark-ringed eyes lit on his sister, he bellowed with animal fury. “Nooo!”
He started thrashing on the bed, bringing a male attendant in from a connected room.
Duarte and Alec exchanged a knowing glance. Things were about to go to hell. Time to make their move.
The man in the lab coat swiveled his head to say something and Alec plugged him with a nearly silenced bullet to the forehead.
Meanwhile, Duarte was freeing Lisa from her tape and bindings. Frantic to get loose and reach her brother, she burst out of Duarte’s hold as soon as Alec had yanked the dead man’s access card off his neck and sliced it through the slot on Kyle’s room door.
“Lisa, wait!”
She was too overcome to hear him, already lunging into the room as soon as the door was open.
It happened in less than an instant, but Duarte saw everything in virtual slow motion. Lisa just out of his reach. Racing toward her brother. The big male attendant snatching her in midstride. Pulling her off her feet. One muscled arm wrapped tight around her waist as she screamed.
And now, jammed up against her temple, the nose of a deadly nine-millimeter pistol. “Nobody fucking move!”
Duarte didn’t need to see the gun up close to know that it would be a SIG.
Lisa’s eyes were wide, her face shocked and bloodless. Her body was utterly still except for her rapid breathing. She stood there at gunpoint, gripped in abject terror.
Just like in the premonition.
God damn it. No!
Duarte and Alec both had their weapons aimed and poised to fire, but neither of them pulled the trigger. The risk to Lisa was too great. Unless...
From the same door the first attendant emerged, another one now crashed into the room, shouting in confusion and alarm. “What the fuck is going on in—”
The interruption was brief, but that’s all Duarte needed.
The gunman holding Lisa took his attention away from her to glance over at his colleague.
Two silenced shots popped at the same time—Alec’s round, which blew away the newcomer, and Duarte’s, a fatal headshot to Lisa’s captor.
“I’ll get the body from the hall,” Alec said, springing into action to drag the other dead man into the room to delay its discovery.
Duarte meanwhile dropped the shades and jammed the lock on the adjacent room door to bar anyone else from pouring in to confront them. Across the room, Lisa was drifting over to Kyle’s bedside on
unsteady legs, her face still blanched and now speckled with her captor’s blood.
There wouldn’t be much time for the siblings’ reunion, no matter how hard-won it had been for Lisa. They’d have maybe a handful of minutes, tops, before the rest of the building caught on to them and the situation really went to hell. They had to clear out ASAP. And as Duarte saw it, they only had a couple of options.
Free Talon and try to get him to safety along with Lisa...
Or break her heart when they eliminated another of Phoenix’s enemies here and now.
17
Her own ordeal just a moment ago was all but forgotten as Lisa neared the bed and saw the full scope of her brother’s condition.
Emaciated and pale, he was restrained to the bedframe by steel cuffs on his wrists and ankles. All he wore was a pair of torn and filthy gray sweatpants, marred with dried blood and heaven only knew what else. His skin was waxy, bruised in more places than not. Reddened welts peppered his torso and limbs. Injection marks. Easily several dozen of them.
She covered her mouth to keep her ragged sob from erupting. She hadn’t cried when John and Alec’s premonition had become reality, but she couldn’t hold back her tears now. They streamed down her cheeks in hot, wet trails. “Oh, Kyle... Oh, my God, what have they done to you?”
“Lisa?” He stared up at her with wild, confused eyes. “Ah, Christ... It is you. Hoped I was wrong. Hoped it was another bad dream...”
“It’s me, Kyle. We’re here to help you.”
“No, you can’t. You can’t be here. You have to get away! Get out now, before they find you!” He bucked and fought against his bindings, though he didn’t seem to have much energy in reserve. A few more thrashes and he collapsed onto the mattress with a long, anguished moan. He closed his eyes, his head thrashing on the stained pillow. “I told you to hide... Wanted you to be safe. Why... why didn’t you listen?”
“Because I knew you were in trouble.” She reached out to touch his sweat-soaked, unwashed hair. It killed her to see her strong, handsome brother reduced to this broken, pathetic shell of a man.
She brushed her fingers over his pinched brow, wincing at the clammy feel of him, the sickening sight of the sores that rode his cracked, dry lips. Her tears kept coming, and she swiped at them with her free hand. “I knew something terrible must’ve happened to you, Kyle. I had to find you.”
His lids opened as she spoke, and she saw his bleary gaze catch on something. He smiled wanly. “You still have it... the birthday present I gave you.”
“Of course.” She touched the silver gecko that had been on her wrist since the day Kyle came to see her. “I’ll cherish it always.”
His weak smile lingered for a long moment. “My Little Lisa Lizard,” he murmured. He chuckled, but it was a sad, regret-filled sound. “My Loyal Lisa Lizard, that’s what you are.”
His head lolled to the side, eyes drooped shut. Lisa gave him a slight shake to rouse him. “Kyle, you can’t sleep. Please, you have to stay awake. We need to talk to you. We’re here to help you.”
“We?” He lifted his eyelids and found John standing beside her now. Alec stood at the room’s large window, peering into the corridor from behind the blinds with his pistol at the ready.
“We aren’t going to have much time,” Alec warned them. “What are we doing here, Ranger? Let’s get it done.”
Kyle’s gaze fixed on John. His eyes widened in surprise, confusion. Then recognition...
And guilt.
“You know, don’t you?” he asked his best friend. “You know what I’ve done.”
Lisa’s heart cracked open at his airless whisper. At the damning words. She hadn’t wanted to believe what John and Alec had suspected—what they’d known—but she couldn’t deny her brother’s betrayal now.
His gaunt face sagged. “I can’t ask you for forgiveness.”
“Don’t think we could give it to you, Talon.” John’s voice was toneless. “Who’ve you been working for?”
“No one. Not for a long time.” His chest sawed with the sigh that heaved out of him. “Been trying to get out... Trying to get away. They won’t let me go, Ranger. Won’t let me die either.”
Lisa crossed her arms over herself, feeling cold and empty as she looked at her brother and heard the resignation in his thready voice.
“I broke loose a few days ago,” he said, his dim gaze drifting over to her. “I tried to reach you... tried to warn you. But they caught me again, brought me back here.”
She nodded. “I got your text, Kyle. It scared me to death—for you, I mean. I didn’t know what else to do but try to find you.”
At her side, John radiated a dangerous fury. “Bad enough what you’ve done to Phoenix and everyone who was a part of it, Talon. You’ve put Lisa at risk now, too. Why do they want her?”
Kyle groaned. “To make me talk. Been giving them bad intel for a while now. They caught on. They’ve beaten me, drugged me... only one thing left. They need something I care about.”
“Who’s behind this?” John demanded. “Who’d you sell Phoenix out to?”
“I don’t know. They’ve kept me isolated. I talk to lieutenants, no one else.” He blinked slowly, glimmers of his former intellect still there beneath the drugged haze. “Figure that means someone high on the food chain’s pulling all the strings.”
“Tell me something we couldn’t already guess on our own,” John ground out harshly. “You never heard a name? All this time you’ve been giving them intel on the program and its operatives, you never used the power of your gift to look behind the curtain?”
“Tried,” Kyle murmured. “Couldn’t do it. Couldn’t get through.”
“What do you mean, couldn’t get through?”
“Hit a wall. Every time I tried to see who it was...” His shoulders went up in a feeble shrug. “A wall went up, like I was being blocked.”
“Why would you do this?” Lisa asked, heartsick and disgusted despite his apparent remorse. “How could you betray your friends? People trusted you, Kyle. I trusted you, too. You’ve betrayed us all.”
He looked at her, regret heavy in his expression. “They promised me things. They gave me things... money, girls, expensive toys. Everything I asked for.”
John growled now. “You traded people’s lives for all that shit, Talon. What did it get you in the end? Look at you. You traded your fucking soul.”
Pain swam in his dull gaze. “I know that now. I know... a lot of things now.”
“Do you know about the dream?”
Kyle looked up at John, stricken. “The explosion.”
“Fuck.” John and Alec exchanged a troubled look. “What about the guns? The kids?”
Kyle frowned, shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean. There’s only the fire. Only heat and flames. Then... nothing. The fire... it destroys everything.”
John scowled, studying him. “You don’t see the gun cabinet with three rifles in it? Or ten kids playing basketball?”
“No. None of that.”
“What’s it mean?” Lisa asked, seeing John’s confusion and distress. “If Kyle’s vision is different, do you think he can help you and Alec make sense of what you’re seeing?”
“I don’t know, but I think we need to find out.”
Alec’s sharp curse at the window drew their attention. “We don’t have time to sit and chat about all of this right now. We’ve gotta get the fuck out of here.”
“Yeah, we do. But we can’t leave Talon behind.”
“Like hell we can’t,” Alec replied. “He betrayed us once, Ranger. What says he won’t do it again?”
“We’re going to have to take that chance. We’re not leaving him behind.”
Lisa’s heart ached with tenderness for what she saw in John’s eyes as he spoke. He loved her, but he loved her brother, too. He wouldn’t give up on Kyle, no matter how heinous the betrayal. She reached up to touch his smooth-shaven cheek, needing to feel his warmth. She needed him to know how muc
h this gift meant to her. “You’re a good man, John Duarte.”
He pressed a quick kiss to her palm. “You can tell me all about that once I find the keys to those cuffs and we’re out of here.”
He stalked over to the dead attendant and started searching the body.
“Come on, man,” Alec warned from his post at the window. “The clock is running out. We got guards at the far end of the corridor now. I hear a lot of boots heading this way.”
“I used you, too, Lisa.” Kyle’s voice was so quiet, she almost didn’t hear him. She looked down at her brother and smoothed his limp hair from his face. “When I came to see you on your birthday... I left something important with you. Thought I’d come back for it one day... my backup plan, in case I needed a way out of all... this. Too late for me now. Maybe you can use it now instead. You and Ranger and Stingray.”
Lisa frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“The bracelet. Find Fox. Give it to him. He’ll know what to do.”
“I don’t understand.” She glanced at her gift from him and shook her head. “Who’s Fox? What’s my bracelet got to do with any of this?”
John came back with the keys and started unlocking Kyle’s restraints. He saw her confused face. “What’s wrong?”
There was no time to answer. He likely wouldn’t have heard her anyway.
In that same instant, security alarms started blasting from all directions in the building.
~ ~ ~
“Haul ass, everybody! Shit just got real.” Alec’s shout was barely audible over the ear-splitting whine of the building’s alarm system.
Keys in hand, Duarte went to work freeing Kyle from his restraints. As he leaned over his old friend to uncuff his wrist, Kyle’s urgent voice grated near his ear. “Forget about me, Ranger! I’m beyond anyone’s help. Just get Lisa to safety. She’s all that matters.”
“We agree on that,” Duarte told him. “But she’ll never forgive me if I don’t try to save your sorry ass, too. Now, get up. Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
The unlocked restraints fell loose, but getting Lisa’s brother to his feet posed even more of an obstacle. He was shaky on his legs, whether from the prolonged torture he’d obviously endured or the narcotics his handlers had addicted him to, Duarte wasn’t sure.