In the past, she’d always felt self-conscious after sex. Like she needed to hide her tender inside self behind some sort of confident, sexy mask.
Not with Nate. She was all tender inside self. All of her, fully on display. Fearless and open. She knew how to give soul-shaking pleasure to her lover. She deserved the incredible pleasure he gave in return. She felt charged with power.
Sated. Replete. Complete.
“Well, then,” she said. “If your sinister plot was to make me feel wonderful and distract me from all my problems, then congratulations. It worked.”
“Good,” he said simply. “That’s all I ever wanted. That’s what I’m going for.”
Oh, crap, not tears again. She sniffed back the foggy rush and smiled at him brightly, waving him out of the room. “Why don’t you go on out,” she said. “Out of the bathroom. I need privacy to make myself presentable.”
“I’ll go see if Josh wrote on the Obelisk,” he said.
“Yes. You do that, and I’ll join you in just a minute.”
She washed up briskly, and made her way back to the living room. Nate was already seated at the monitor. He turned to look at her. “Not yet,” he said.
They heard the car engine, and as always, Nate’s gun instantly appeared in his hand. “Stay back,” he said, as he sidled into the kitchen to peer out the window. The tension in his body relented when he saw the car. “It’s Mace, with Jim Wong and Mitch,” he said. “Excellent. We can get moving.”
“Already?” She was startled. “Don’t you need to plan?”
“I’ve been planning all night,” he said. “With Mace and Jim and Josh’s help. We just have to finalize. The main pillar of my plan is to move while Clemens and some of his men are in Shaw’s Crossing looking for you. The fewer of them there are at Bailey Ridge, the better our chances. I’ll brief the others, we’ll grab some lunch, and go.”
Mace Trask came in, greeting her with a respectful nod, followed by the other two men. Mace patted her on the shoulder.
“It’s about time you let us in on the secret,” he said. “It was driving us all nuts.”
“I was that obvious?” she asked, dismayed.
The men exchanged amused glances.
“Pretty much,” Jim Wong said. “We placed bets on the probable scenarios. I just won fifty bucks with the old classic, the bad ex-boyfriend. I got the closest.”
“Well, congratulations on your win,” she said, bemused. “And thank you for your patience. And in advance, for your help.”
They all mumbled some variant of ‘no problem, whatever, anytime’ as another car rumbled into the driveway. Every single man went on guard.
It was just the caterer, with a bunch of heaped trays and aluminum baking pans. Once that was carried inside and squared away and the caterer’s van was gone, they gathered around the table. Elisa nibbled on turkey on sourdough as she watched the men study the satellite photos and discuss how the extraction would go down.
“Your plans are all contingent on Josh being able to collaborate from the inside,” Mace was arguing. “But we don’t know if he’ll be able to pull that off. It all depends on how bored, stupid or sloppy the guards are. That’s still an unknown element. We’d be better off assuming that they’re extremely disciplined, and that we’ll have no contact from inside.”
“True, but the only one who limits the gaming is Clemens, and he’s not there,” Nate said. “So he should be connected. Hopefully Josh will be able to at least tell us the best time to move, even if he can’t cut the power or create a diversion.”
Mitch held up his phone. “Newsflash. Anton is sending us Clint. Fiona decided that it was stupid to leave two guys covering them and only one on Elisa while all this stuff is going down, so Clint is on his way here as we speak.”
“That’s crazy!” she protested. “All of you should go on the mission! I’m fine here on my own! No one but you guys know that I’m here, so what’s the danger?”
Nate exchanged glances with the other three men at the table, and shook his head. “No,” he said. “We’ll proceed as we planned. Clint’s on his way.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” she said. “Do you all have full body armor, at least?”
“Yes, and thermal cloaking, too,” he assured her. “They won’t see us coming. We’ll come down on them like a hammer.”
Elisa winced. If that was supposed to comfort her, it didn’t work.
She laid her half-eaten sandwich down, her appetite gone.
19
Nate hung back and kissed Elisa passionately when she came out to the driveway to see them off. When he drew away, her eyes were bright, shining with tears. “Thank you for doing this,” she said, her voice tiny. “Please. Please, be careful.”
“I will,” he assured her. “I’ll call you, and text you. Whenever I can.”
He kept his eyes on Elisa in the rear-view for as long as he could. She lingered on the deck, watching them drive away. There was utter silence until they turned the corner and she was lost to sight.
Then Jim whistled, and Mace started to laugh.
“Damn,” Mace murmured. “Just look at that. And you said she wasn’t into you.”
Nate shifted uncomfortably in the seat. “It’s been an interesting two days.”
“Yeah? Interesting how?” Mace’s dark eyebrows waggled suggestively.
“None of your goddamn business,” he snarled.
“Oooh. I love it when they get secretive,” Mace said jubilantly. “That’s how you know it’s a big deal.”
“Look, her brother’s head is on the block, and this thing is not in the bag. So don’t shoot the fucking confetti cannons yet. You’ll jinx me.”
“Sure, man,” Mace murmured swiftly. “Sorry. Absolutely. My bad.”
It took a few hours to get to Amity Springs, with the combination of bad weather and narrow, winding roads. Then another hour and some to drive deep into the mountains behind it up toward Bailey Ridge.
They left the car off the road in the brush a couple of miles away from the house and hiked closer, staying well clear of the perimeter that Josh had specified as being in range of the cameras until night fell, and the lights came on. Hours passed as they studied the place, and the man slowly patrolling the grounds outside.
Conditions weren’t going to get better. Nate pulled out his burner and dialed Elisa, one final time.
“We’re in position,” he said when she picked up. “Can Josh give us a progress report from the inside?”
“One second.” He heard the keyboard as she relayed the question. She spoke again after a few moments. “Belker is sitting across the room playing on his phone. Ray’s at the security monitor. Aldo is patrolling outside, but Josh can’t tell where.”
“We’ve got eyes on Aldo,” he said. “We’re moving in five. If he can create a distraction without paying for it too highly, now is the time.”
“Be careful,” she whispered.
“I will,” he assured her. “Tell him to do whatever he can, and get down as low as possible. The best thing would be to get into one of the cast iron bathtubs to ride out whatever comes afterward. If he can.”
He heard the tap on the screen. “I told him,” she said. “He says, see you on the other side. And whatever happens, thanks. GeekwadX1000 just signed off.”
“Balls of steel,” he said. “A family trait, evidently. Hey, Elisa?”
“Yes?”
“These last couple of days? They meant everything to me.” He waited, holding his breath.
“Me, too,” she whispered.
“I don’t have the time to tell you how I feel about it. Or the privacy, either. Besides, it would take fifty, sixty years to do it justice. I’ll leave it for afterward.”
“Agreed.” Her voice was a strangled, breathy thread of sound. “Afterward.”
“Right.” Nate closed the call, turned off the ringer, and shoved the burner into his pocket. Mace and Jim were both giving him get-off-your-ass look
s.
He fastened the thermal poncho over himself, dropped to the ground beside them on the muddy leaves and snow, and started crawling toward the house.
20
Josh looked down at the translation of the last message Lu had inscribed on the Obelisk one last time, willing it to be true. He shook inside.
u can do this. c u soon bro. love love love.
Let it be true. Please, God, let it be true.
He’d spent hours, days, weeks and months fantasizing about this moment. Feeling helpless and trapped. Getting slapped, kicked, punched and insulted by those mouth-breathing troll assholes. For months.
Today, they were going to get a big fucking surprise. And he could not wait.
He looked at Belker, the one he hated the most, and pitched his voice to its most annoying nasal whine. “I’m hungry,” he said. “I want some toast.”
Belker looked up from his phone. “What’s that? The little prince wants a snacky?”
“I’m hungry.” Josh kept his face sullen, slack, dull. Head hanging, mouth slightly open, eyes half closed and clouded. “You don’t have to like, fuckin’ starve me.”
Belker put his phone in his pocket and stood up. He’d gotten that hot, hard glitter in his eye that Josh had come to dread. “Fuck your snack,” he said. “You still think I’m supposed to serve you? You are one fucking slow learner, kid.”
Josh started to snivel. “I just want to eat something,” he whimpered. “I’m just so hungry. I did all my chores today, so I—”
“Shut the fuck up, turd,” Ray called impatiently from the other room. “Shut your trap and go get your own fucking food.”
Josh blinked stupidly in Ray’s direction, then hopefully in Belker’s, sniffling loudly as he wiped his nose with his sleeve. “Can I?”
“Do what you want, shitstain,” Belker growled. “Just get the fuck out of my sight.”
Josh hurried into the kitchen. His feet made no sound, since he wore only socks. One of the first things they’d done when they brought him here was to take his shoes. Even if he did by some crazy chance get outside, he wouldn’t get far, not in the snow. He’d lose his feet to frostbite before he found anyone to help him.
He’d been careful to seem less than bright to these men, though he didn’t push the act very hard when Gil himself was around. Gil knew him too well to fall for it. But the rest of these men, though vicious and meaner than snakes, were not really all that observant. They accepted his behavior at face value. Excellent, for his purposes.
Once in the kitchen, he worked fast. Some of the prep he’d done earlier, after his dinnertime ‘chores.’ He was tasked with loading and unloading the dishwasher after meals. Earlier, he’d pried open a gas lighter that he’d found in the back of a drawer, the one used to light the pilots on the burners, and left it in a cupboard, wedged upright, ready for action. Now he splashed some of the lighter fluid into the toaster, and drizzled what was left onto the bottom of the kitchen curtains.
He shifted the toaster to the edge of the sink, positioning the curtain directly over it, and then grabbed a few paper towels. Shoved them into the toaster as well, making sure they stuck well out the top.
He pushed down the toaster, and prayed. Oh please, God. Please.
Then he pulled the wooden rolling pin out of the drawer, the one with the reindeer carvings that Lu had used for the Christmas cookies. Seconds ticked by.
Suddenly, whoosh. Flames licked the bottom of the curtain, catching onto the accelerant. The cloth began to smoke, and blacken—and then it caught fire.
The flames ate up the fabric. Then the smoke alarm started to squeal.
Josh let out a terrified howl at the same time. “Fire!” he shrieked.
“Oh fucking fuck!” Ray bellowed, lunging for the kitchen.
Josh backed away from the flames, still holding the rolling pin. The flames licked the ceiling. Belker and Ray were bellowing in the kitchen, trying to deal with the fire extinguisher.
Josh left them to it, and bolted for the utility closet at the end of the corridor.
Inside it was the electrical panel. He dragged the on-off lever down to “off.”
Pitch darkness now. Just the crackling red glow from the kitchen, the bellowing of the two men fighting the fire, the acrid stink of smoke.
Josh swung the rolling pin up at the panel with all his strength and bashed at the spot he’d just memorized. Again. Again. Again. He reached up and felt the panel, running his hand over it. The on-off switch was gone, the panel scarred and dented.
That would slow them down. Who knew how long.
Gunshots. Fuck. It had started. Lu said to move fast and keep low. Get to the cast iron bathtub if he could. With the house on fucking fire? He’d end up roasted.
He opened the closet door, trying not to cough, and stumbled through the billowing smoke down the corridor toward the bathroom.
Something huge hit him in the back, smacking him to the ground face first.
His jaw clacked together. He bit his tongue and tasted blood. Tried to breathe, couldn’t. His wind was gone. He was pinned. There was an elephant on top of him.
Then the huge weight shifted, and he felt a heavy hand across his windpipe. Slowly squeezing it. And the pressure of a gun barrel, burning his scalp.
“You lying sack of shit.” Belker’s gravelly rasp. “You did this. And I’m going to make you pay. I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.”
21
Gunshots rang from the kitchen. Nate crawled down the corridor toward the foot of the stairs, choking on smoke. Mace darted out of the kitchen.
“Status?” Nate coughed out.
“Two hostiles down,” Mace said. “One unaccounted for. Fire is out of control. We have to get the kid and get the fuck out of here fast.”
Mace gestured for Nate to continue down the corridor, and darted upstairs before Nate could call him back. He didn’t want Mace trapped up there.
A swift glance into the living room showed it empty. He was lucky for the infrared goggles. With the power out, the only light source was the fire raging from the kitchen. He sidled along on the walls toward the bathroom, flattened against the wall. He reached for the knob, stretching his arm out, pulling the handle down.
Bam-bam-bam-bam-bam.
Fuck. Nate jerked back. The bullets had punched through the bathroom door.
A second of silence followed by a guttural howl, then sounds of a scuffle. He could barely hear it with his gunshot-deafened ears. Screaming, shouting, thumping.
Nate opened the door. Two men writhed on the floor. A big one was on top. Crew cut, thick neck. Not-Josh. The top guy turned, eyes wide and blind in the darkness, gun whipping up—
Bam. Nate put a bullet through his forehead.
The gun fell from the dead man’s grip. He collapsed on top of Josh.
Nate sank down to his knees. “Josh? Is that you? Are you okay?”
“I’m Josh.” The kid’s voice was raspy and thin. “Who are you?”
“I’m Nate,” he said.
“Could you help me shove this guy off of me? I think my arm is broken. I can’t seem to do it with just one.”
Nate heaved the body off the younger man. Josh hissed in pain as Nate carefully helped him sit up. Josh sat in a spreading puddle of hot blood from the other man’s head. He felt it with his hand, and flinched away in revulsion.
“He won’t hurt you again,” Nate told him. “He’s gone now.”
Josh let out a sobbing breath. His face streamed with blood from his nose.
“Okay,” he said shakily, nodding. “Okay, then.”
Nate noticed the thin piece of wood poking out of the meat of the dead guy’s fleshy thigh.
“Did you stick that spike into him?” he asked.
“Yeah, when he shot at the door,” Josh said wearily. “It’s a chopstick. They hid all the knives and tools, so I sharpened a chopstick. I kept it in my sock.”
The smoke was thicker now, and Mace appeared a
t the door, his hand over his mouth, coughing. “Move,” he gasped out. “This house is fucked.”
Between the two of them, they hoisted the swaying, staggering Josh to his feet.
“His arm’s broken,” Nate said. “I got him.” He hoisted Josh up into his arms. It wasn’t difficult. The kid had wasted away to skin and bone.
“Now, or we’re toast!” Jim Wong bawled from out in the corridor.
The fire had devoured half the house. There was no way out through the front door. They ran through the smoke of the living room. Jim shot out the window, and they clambered out the big window frame onto the patio. Their boots crunched on the broken glass, which quickly gave way to fresh snow.
Josh stared up at the dark sky, his big, hollow eyes huge with wonder. The fire behind them crackled and roared. Hot wind, mixing with the smell of outside.
“I can’t believe it,” he croaked. “I feel snow on my face. I can smell the wind.”
Nate didn’t have the breath to answer, not running through the woods while carrying someone, and besides, Josh’s teeth were chattering. He could go into shock.
They reached the car, and he wrapped Josh in a blanket and cranked the heat up to full blast. The kid looked terrible, still drenched in the big guy’s blood, his wan, ashen face daubed with plenty of his own, lips a grayish blue, eyes hollow. But his gaze was clear. And he was smiling.
“Thank you,” he said, looking at Mace and Wong. “Whoever you are. I owe you. For the rest of my life.”
“No problem,” Mace said. “Look, do you need to go to a hospital right now, or can you tough it out for a few hours so we can get closer to home? I’m concerned about spreading out our security while Clemens is still out there fighting like a cornered rat. We’re safer if we’re all together. But if you’re in a bad way—”
“No. I’m fine. I’ll wait. Take me straight to Lu. Please. That’s all I want.”
Heedless: The Hellbound Brotherhood Book Four Page 17