My mouth dropped open. “What about the girls?” I repeated my question. He couldn’t possibly be considering leaving them behind. Collateral damage – another term he’d used frequently. But they weren’t collateral damage, they were young women with families and futures. “Don’t you dare tell me to think about myself and not worry about everyone else!”
Lance thrust the ketchup and mustard under my nose. “Which one? Or both?” Replacing the condiments on the counter, he pulled the skillet off the heat.
“Ketchup. What about the girls, Lance?”
He prepared the burgers and passed me a plate with mine on it. “The ones that aren’t too far gone can come; Becca, Chloe and Claire.”
“What about Jenny?”
He frowned and nudged his chin in the direction of the table. “You haven’t seen her in over a week, Gwen…”
“And…” I sat down and continued to stare at him. He may be able to live with collateral damage, but I didn’t think I could.
“She’s on the verge of snapping. If I were to attempt to take her, she’d likely attempt to kill me and/or hurt one of the others in the process of trying to escape. She could see you as an enemy now and kill you, or use you to hurt me. I won’t take that risk.”
My frown deepened as I looked down at the burger, my appetite now non-existent. “Can’t you bind her so she can’t?”
Lance settled a stern gaze at me and gave his head a shake. “Gwen, there’s fourteen girls down there right now. It’ll be a challenge to get out the sane ones; if I’m trying to handle the crazies we’ll never make it out in time.”
My temper flared as I thought of poor Mia, sitting in the middle of a cell wallpapered in soiled toilet paper. “They’re crazy because you guys made them that way! Mia was a boxer. Becca was a med student. The twins could have been anything they wanted to be. You guys stole it from them.”
“I didn’t steal a goddamned thing!”
“I vaguely recall you saying guilty by association not too long ago to me.”
“Taking the unstable ones could ruin everything. We could all end up dying. For what, to save them from a lifetime playing with finger paint in an institution?”
He wasn’t going to be swayed. Reasoning with him wasn’t going to work. On one level I understood his reasoning. If I took emotion off of the table I could see how what he said made sense – but I didn’t have his ability to take emotion off of the table.
“If they all don’t go, I don’t go,” I whispered, shocking myself with my words, but knowing they were true. I couldn’t live with myself if we left any of the innocent behind. Lance must have heard the conviction in my tone, because he leaned back in his chair and eyed me with scrutiny, his brow furrowing.
“I could drug you. Force you to go without any of the others.”
I looked up and into his eyes. “And you know I’d hate you for it.”
His jaw clenched and he thrust a hand into his dark hair. “Please Gwen, for once, would you listen to reason.”
I shook my head. “They deserve a chance to go back to their lives just as much as I do.”
“Dammit Gwen, this could ruin everything.”
I said nothing, but continued to hold his stare. I’d said all I could.
“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll spend the evening trying to figure a way to get us all out safely. If I can then we take them all, if I can’t then we take the ones who can be saved. But even if I have to spend the rest of my life with you hating me, you will be getting out; I love you too much to see you die for a lost cause.”
Without another word he left the kitchen, leaving me staring blankly at my untouched hamburger.
~*~*~*~*~
“Are you awake?” I asked, rolling over to my side and facing Lance, who was lying on his back with his eyes closed, his hands laced behind his head. Neither one of us had spoken a word all evening. He stared blankly at the television watching rerun episodes of Seinfeld and I pretended to be engrossed in my book, although both of our minds were on the same thing – tomorrow.
“Yes. Just thinking.” His eyes opened and he looked over at me, gracing me with a partial smile. “You should be sleeping, you need your rest Gwen. It’s going to be an overwhelming day for you.”
“I’m sorry.”
The tension in his muscles drained and he shifted so he was on his side facing me. “For what?”
I ran my finger along the contours of muscle in his chest; the bruises had all faded and his rib looked fine, although I knew it still bothered him slightly. “For saying I’d hate you for not getting the others out. You saved me, I couldn’t ever hate you, Lance.” I huffed, my face flushing. “If anything you’re my hero.”
“I’m hardly a hero.” He fingered a lock of my golden hair and placed a kiss on my forehead. “Don’t be so quick to say you could never hate me, there’s still a lot you need to learn about me. You don’t know a thing about what I’ve done to get to this point in time – to this moment. I’ve paid a high price in the name of vengeance.”
“Then tell me, I want to know everything.”
“When we’re out of here.”
“Have you figured out a way to save the girls?”
He released my lock of hair and ran his index finger along my jaw. “We’ll need to drug the problem ones. An injection will knock them out for roughly five hours, long enough to get them far from here and us far from them before anyone starts looking for survivors. I can grab a laundry cart, not exactly ideal, but it’s the best I can come up with.”
“So we get out and then leave them?”
“Yeah. I have clothing and money set aside in a van hidden in the woods about a mile from the gates that can be split between them all to get them home, or wherever they wish to go. Getting them in the cart over the gravel road is going to be a fucking bitch.”
“How many will need to be sedated?”
“Four. Jenny, of course.” He flashed me a wry smile. “One of the new girls, Felicity, she’s almost as hard to handle as Jenny. Then we have Gabriella and Sam, they’re completely submissive now, so likely won’t want to go without Tanner there telling them to – considering he’ll be dead that isn’t going to happen. The others I think should be okay once they realize that we’re getting them out and not going to hurt them.”
“So how are you going to do it?”
“Do what?”
“Kill them all.” I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know, but I had to ask.
“That’s not something you need to know. Just know, when I get back here we move fast. You’re to do as I say, no questions asked. We’ll have lots of time for questions and arguing later. Are we clear?”
“We’re clear.” He sounded so sure and confident, not even a tremble of uncertainty in his voice or expression. I closed my eyes and envisioned myself showing up on my parents’ doorstep. I couldn’t wait to see the happiness in their eyes. I swore then and there I’d never take them for granted again.
Chapter 22
Lance
Looking around the conference room where all The Boss’s associates were gathered discussing the future of the organization and their current projected revenues, I didn’t feel even a hint of remorse for what I was about to do. I knew all the people in attendance, some I may have considered friends had they not been murderous monsters, but instead all they were to me were marks. Their guards were also in attendance standing against the back wall, pretending to ignore their bosses’ conversations. Like shooting ducks in a barrel.
Glancing at my watch I realized it was time, the conclusion to years of plotting and planning. I took one more look at the man I had considered my father, until I’d learned the truth. I’d even idolized him at one point in my life, hoping to be as great of a man as I perceived him to be. However, now all I felt was contempt.
“If you’ll excuse me, everyone.” Pushing my chair back, I made my way to the door.
“Son,” my father’s voice called out after me.
> I paused with my hand on the doorknob of the conference room door and then slowly turned and met my father’s gaze for the last time. “Yes Father?”
“Hurry back, we need to discuss your recent deal and your future with the organization. We’re extremely pleased; you’ve surpassed our expectations.” I met everyone’s gaze – many of them were smiling at me in appreciation – once more and nodded.
“Of course, I’ll only be a minute.” I left the room and closed the door firmly behind me. Pulling a small roll of electrical tape from my pants pocket I ran it along the bottom of the door and along the seams to keep the gas from seeping out into the hallway. Once done, I pulled a small transmitter from my jeans pocket, flipped open the cover and didn’t even pause before hitting the button that released the poison gas into the ventilation system feeding into the conference room. The gas was odourless, colourless and tasteless, I’d blocked the vent so the only place the gas would feed into was the conference room so everyone in the room would be dead in ten minutes, dead before they even realized they were in danger.
There were twelve guards patrolling the interior of the compound, with strict orders to steer clear of the conference room, easy marks. They’d be dead before they even realized I was a threat. Once they were taken care of I’d grab Gwen, the women downstairs and we’d get the fuck out of there. As soon as we were outside the gates, I’d detonate the explosives I’d strategically placed throughout the compound and bring it to the ground. It would takes days, maybe even weeks for officials to get to the bodies and make positive identifications, giving us time to be far away before they began to suspect who was behind their deaths.
Foolproof.
Gwen
“Now!” Lance yelled, bursting into the room where I’d been sitting in the living room, dressed in a pair of his jogging pants and t-shirt, awaiting his arrival.
“Ohmygod!” He was soaked in blood – over his clothing, in his hair, on his face. His? Someone else’s? I had no clue. Jumping to my feet I raced across the room to him and immediately began checking him for injuries.
“Jesus Christ Gwen, stop fussing, you’re wasting time we don’t have!” Grabbing my hand he practically threw me out of the room and into the hallway. Not bothering with closing the door, he grabbed my hand and pretty much pulled me behind him and he ran down the hallway, down the stairs to the main floor, into the library and into the elevator that took us down to the underground floors.
I glanced over at him as we waited for the elevator ding. He had a holster on over his bloody t-shirt. One gun was still holstered while the other, equipped with a silencer, was in his free hand. I also noticed he was wearing a utility belt with extra clips attached to it.
“Where is everyone?” I hadn’t seen a soul, dead or alive, on the way down.
“Dead.” The elevator dinged and we stepped out. Less than a minute later we were in the dungeon with the laundry cart, which had been sitting outside the dungeon waiting for us. He’d really thought of everything. As we stepped into the dungeon the women grew frantic with a mix of emotions ranging from fear to excitement to confusion.
“Ohmygod! Gwen! Are you okay?” Becca asked as she leapt from her cot and raced to the front of the cage.
Lance unlocked the cages for the twins first, yelling at them to get out and stand by the door. Both had looks of confusion on their faces, but did as told without question. He’d only been training them for a week and they were like obedient little puppies.
“Fucking son-of-a-bitch!” Jenny snarled, throwing her entire body against her cell door and glaring at Lance. Jenny looked pure insane, her red curls a twisted mess, her green eyes bloodshot and her body littered with bruises. Not speaking, Lance pulled a needle from a little pouch on his utility belt and jabbed her arm with it.
She squealed, pulling her arm back. “What the fuck!” He proceeded to jab the other three he considered “problem children.” By the time he unlocked the cages of the non-problem girls the four were passed out.
“What the fuck is going on?” Becca ran to me once free and gave me a hug.
I hugged her back. “We’re going home.”
“Gwen!” Lance’s voice had me redirecting my attention where it needed to be – on him. He tossed the keys to me. “Get the other girls’ cages unlocked and have Becca help you pull them out and into the cart.” He hoisted the unconscious Jenny onto his shoulder and placed her into the laundry cart. He had two more girls in the cart, all piled unceremoniously inside, by the time Becca and I had the new wild child inside the cart.
“Let’s go.” He gave the cart a push and headed toward the stairwell. The girls were asking a slew of questions as we followed behind, ranging from where were Tanner and the others, to where were we going to a protest that we were going to get in trouble. All chatter was ignored. Lance didn’t seem to give a shit whether they followed or not; it seemed like as far as he was concerned his part was done.
“The stairs,” I announced, cursing under my breath seeing the cart and then the flight of stairs.
“Everyone grab an edge, we’re carrying it up.”
Surprisingly, the girls all grabbed a side and we lifted the cart. With the dozen of us the cart carrying the four women seemed feather light and we made it to the top in less than a minute. Even more shocking than the fact that the girls helped lift the cart was the fact the chatter had stopped and they all focused on following behind. Perhaps they could feel the freedom the further we got away from the cells – I couldn’t say, only speculate.
“If there’s no one to stop us then why are we hurrying?” I whispered to him when we get into the elevator and ascended to the main floor.
“Because this place is going to blow.”
My blue eyes widened in disbelief. “Like blow up, gone?”
“Yea, we need to be as far away from here as possible when it happens. The whole place is going to be like one big incinerator when all the explosives go off.”
The elevator dinged and doors opened to the library.
“Here.” Releasing the cart, Lance passed me the spare gun, with silencer.
“What’s this for?” I asked, accepting the gun with trembling hands. The girls and cart zoomed past us and out of the library.
“Because not all the guards outside are dead.” When he caught my gaze, all emotion was gone from his eyes. He was in some sort of robot commando mode; it both assured and scared me. We caught up to the girls and as the front door to the house came into view, with the daylight streaming into the foyer, excited chatter among the girls erupted. Just seeing the wide smiles and gleam of excitement in their eyes made my heart swell and tears form in my eyes.
Chloe was about to grab onto the door handle when Lance stopped her, his hand on hers. “No. Stay here, be quiet and follow along.”
Chloe nodded and released the handle.
“Gwen.” I went to his side. He leaned into me, his voice low so only I could hear. “Stay close. Don’t hesitate, just shoot. If you hesitate those girls will die because of it.”
He opened the door and immediately raised the gun and in two quick shots, both men – one on either side of the door – were dead before they hit the ground, streams of blood beginning to flow from their heads as they fell.
To my surprise none of the girls so much as made a sound. I looked over my shoulder at them and to my dismay none seemed to be moved by the deaths of the two men. It saddened me; were they all too far gone already? How much mental and emotional damage had they suffered from?
Lance motioned for us to follow along and we quickly made our way out of the house and down the paved driveway. There was a string of high-end cars parked outside, Mercedes, BMWs, a Ferrari and various high-end SUVs. Shit, who were the people dead in the house? How many rich and powerful people took their last breath less than an hour ago?
“Come on, there’s four more guards roaming. Watch for them.” As a group we raced to the closed exit of the high fence.
“Hey
! Hold it right there!” a voice commanded from behind us.
Lance didn’t hesitate. Before I even had a chance to look back over my shoulder, he had spun around, aimed, shot once and shot a second time. By the time I turned one guard was dead on the ground and the other was struggling to aim his gun, but the wound on his shoulder was making it difficult. Lance took another shot, hitting the second guard in the center of the forehead and dropping him to the ground.
I caught Lance’s gaze for a brief moment and it was like looking into nothingness. He’d just shot two more people and it was like it didn’t even bother him. Not giving myself time to think about it we moved forward until we reached the guardhouse.
“Where’s the guard?” It hadn’t even occurred to me until we reached the guardhouse that there should be a couple of men in it.
“No longer on duty. One minute.”
“What the fuck!” I turned to the sound of the voice to see another guard running toward us, pulling his rifle from his shoulder. I glanced over at Lance through the guard station window, but he was too interested in whatever he was doing in there to notice the approaching guard. “Don’t move, bitches.”
Don’t hesitate, just shoot. His instruction screamed out in my mind and I listened. Raising the gun, I didn’t even take careful aim, I just began pulling the trigger until nothing was left in the magazine and all that could be heard was a soft clicking noise. The man fell to the ground, but not before getting several shots off. The first shot went high, well over our heads. The second shot plunged into the side of the laundry cart.
I just shot a man… Ohmygod… My entire body trembled as I dropped the gun to the ground. He wasn’t moving. I killed him…
The world began spinning and I stumbled forward. Grabbing the side of the cart, I attempted to steady myself. The spinning increased and I began to fight for air, sucking in deep breaths, but not seeming to be able to get any oxygen in my lungs.
Pain… I groaned as my hand brushed my thigh where the pain seemed to be radiating and when I peered down at my hand it was coated in blood.
Bad & Bold - A 7 Book Bad Boy Romance Collection! Page 92