Slowly, some of Mira’s anxiety trickled away. The brittle feeling in her muscles faded, allowing more room for her to pull in oxygen.
“Tell me the phrase,” she ordered her father.
He frowned, doing a great job of pretending that he didn’t understand. “What phrase?”
“The one that keeps me alive. The one that deactivates whatever fucked-up programming you shoved in my head.”
He stared at her, his eyes so like hers it made her want to claw them out. “You think that kind of information is something I’d give away for nothing?”
Another small part of her died in that instant. She’d thought he’d already hurt her as much as possible, but she’d been wrong. That he would treat her life as a bargaining chip hurt. Bad.
She tried to hide her flinch but wasn’t sure she’d pulled it off. The spark of excitement in his eyes told her he’d seen something—smelled blood and wanted more.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Release, of course, but I’m not stupid enough to think that’s possible. I do, however, believe I at least deserve a more comfortable cell in exchange for my cooperation.”
“Throw in the location of every one of your labs, and I’ll see what I can do.”
He eased back in his chair, the perfect image of a man in his element. “I did promise that if you came to see me, I’d tell you the truth. I’m a man of my word—”
Mira snorted. “Fucking liar.”
He gave her a paternal frown of disappointment. “Language, Mira. Really. I taught you better.”
She gave him a sweet smile. “You tried to teach me a lot of things, like how to inflict pain. How to treat people as disposable objects. How to suffer in silence. Guess you failed on all accounts, you motherfucking asshole. Now tell me, where are the other labs?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and looked away.
“Really?” she said. “You’re going to try to punish me with the silent treatment? Do I look like I’m four?”
He said nothing.
Mira shrugged. “Fine. Keep your secrets. Whatever time I have left, I’ll enjoy every second of it thinking about how you’re rotting away in here. Just know that there will be no more visits from me—no more reason for them to stop beating on you to give the bruises time to heal.”
Sage paled. She’d hit a mark. Despite his mental cunning and power, he was an old man and had the body of one. Whatever torture they subjected him to, it must have been enough to scare him.
“Don’t go,” he said. “I’ll tell you what you want to know. Just get them to promise not to hurt me anymore.”
“I have no authority to make them promise anything. Your only chance is to do the right thing and take away their reason for torturing you. Tell them what they want to know, and they won’t have to hurt you anymore.”
He looked at the floor. His voice was small. Weak. “There is no phrase.”
“What?”
“Whoever told you that I programmed you is wrong. Even if I’d wanted to do it, you were never susceptible to that kind of conditioning. Your mind was always too strong for that. I made sure of it so you couldn’t be used against me.”
“But you tried.”
He looked at her, and for the first time in her life, she saw regret in his eyes. “I did. I’m sorry.”
He held out his gnarled hand to her.
How many times had she dreamt of this? How many times had she prayed for her father to turn himself around and do the right thing?
She couldn’t count that high. And now, staring into the face of the thing she wanted most, she cracked. Weakened.
Mira put her hand in his.
Sage jerked her out of her chair and across the table. Her chair hit the far wall hard enough to shatter. Her legs flew out, slamming into the guard next to her father. The guard toppled over just as she slammed into her father’s chest.
By the time she realized what had happened, she was being held against his body, serving as a human shield. He had some kind of sharp point digging into her throat.
The guard regained his feet and pulled his weapon.
“I will kill her,” said Sage.
Whatever hope had sprouted in Mira’s chest, it died a swift, painful death. Of course her father had no intention to repent. Of course he would use her to get what he wanted. He always had.
Whatever the guard saw in her father’s face made him lower his gun. “There’s no way out. This whole place is secure.”
“If they want her alive, they’ll clear a path.”
“Don’t listen to him,” said Mira. “It’s obvious he lacks the ability to tell the truth.”
“The truth is I’ll kill her if they make me.”
She didn’t doubt that for a second.
The door opened, revealing several more armed soldiers. Sage shifted her body to cover his own. He inched along the wall toward the door. “Let me pass.”
None of the men so much as flinched.
“Shoot him,” she said.
“They’ll hit you,” said the guard to her right.
“I’ve been shot before. I’ll deal. Just pull the trigger.”
Another voice boomed from down the hall. “Let him go.”
Payton. He’d given that order.
“I will not risk Mira’s safety. Let the man pass.”
The soldiers cleared a path. They shuffled out into the hall.
“What the hell are you doing, Payton? Tell them to shoot.”
Sage tightened his hold and dug the point of his weapon deeper into her skin. Blood trickled along her neck, making her stomach give a queasy flop.
Payton looked past her. “I have snipers on the roof. If you try to take her past the gate, they will fire.”
“What’s to stop you from shooting me after I let her go?”
“My word.”
Sage laughed. “That never used to be worth much.”
“It is now. I love Mira like a daughter—something you could never understand. Her life is worth more to me than yours.”
“Tell your men to back off. Open the doors. If I see one soldier or one locked door on my way out, Mira will be the one to pay.”
“Just like old times, huh, Dad?” she snapped.
“Shut up. The grown-ups are talking.”
More blood flowed over her skin—enough to wet the collar of her shirt. She briefly thought about fighting back but couldn’t think of a move she could make that wouldn’t jab that weapon deeper into her neck. He was poised right above an artery, and she was likely miles away from the nearest hospital.
“Clear the way,” ordered Payton. “Let him go.”
Mira couldn’t let this happen. She couldn’t be the reason Sage went free. If he did, he’d hurt more people, and the list of his victims was already too long for her to ever make right. She couldn’t allow him to add to the pile of bodies in his wake.
Somehow, somewhere between here and the front gate, she had to find a way to kill her father.
Chapter Twenty-one
As soon as Adam heard the alarm sound, he knew Mira was in trouble.
The guard posted outside his door disappeared. Adam wasted no time making his escape. He pried the plastic light-switch cover from the wall and ripped the switch free from its moorings. It took a few seconds to break off a couple of pieces of electrical wiring. Once the wires were free, he slammed the post of one bed down on them to flatten and harden them.
Lockpicks in hand, he made quick work of unlocking the door before his guard returned.
Finding the commotion was easy; figuring out what had gone wrong was irrelevant. As soon as he saw Sage dragging a bleeding Mira out into the night, all he cared about was getting her back.
Sage was halfway across the open space between the building
and the gate. Mira had no coat. Blood oozed from her neck where Sage held what looked to be some kind of improvised weapon made from a spoon. The tip gleamed with her blood, less than an inch from a major artery.
If Sage shoved that sharpened spoon into her throat, she’d bleed out in seconds.
“Steady,” Payton ordered the soldiers around him. “Hold your fire.”
Adam started toward Mira. He wasn’t going to let her father drag her away.
“Stop!” shouted Payton.
Adam ignored him.
There was some commotion behind him. He was vaguely aware of the guards asking if they should go after him. Whatever Payton told them held them at bay.
“I’m not letting you take her,” said Adam.
Mira’s face was pale, but she seemed solid. Coherent. “Shoot him, Adam.”
He didn’t have a weapon. He wasn’t even wearing his own clothes. The cold air stroked his skin, bleeding away the heat of his fury. “I can’t.”
Her green gaze hit his with the force of a large-caliber round right in the chest. “I need you to stop him. Whatever it takes.”
He understood her message: Don’t worry about her. Take out the bad guy. But even though he understood it, he couldn’t act on it. Not when she was in such clear danger.
Maybe she didn’t realize how close to death she really was—how little her father cared about her safety. After all he’d done to her, she should have known, but children often had superhuman powers of denial when it came to their parents.
“Let them go,” called Payton from behind him.
“You can’t let him go,” said Mira. “Neither can I.”
She was going to act. He could see it in the slight change of her posture. She was coiling, preparing to strike.
If she did, she was dead. That weapon would go right through her and Sage would use her bleeding out as a distraction.
“Don’t,” was all he said, looking right into her eyes. “I’ve got this.”
Mira relaxed. Adam closed the distance.
They were almost to the gate. He could feel the heat of crosshairs against his back from the men aiming at him.
“He’ll let her go at the gate,” said Payton. “If he doesn’t, my men will shoot.”
And hit Mira in the process.
The gate was only ten feet away. Adam calculated how long it would take him to do what needed to be done. He checked the ground for obstacles and sped his breathing to oxygenate his blood.
Sage must have seen what Adam was preparing to do, because he shoved Mira toward Adam, forcing him to catch her or let her fall.
He caught her.
By the time he had her flattened on the ground, out of the path of flying bullets, he shouted, “Fire!”
“No!” countered Payton, his voice booming into the night.
No one fired.
Adam shoved himself to his feet and took off at a dead run, hot on Sage’s heels.
A motorcycle came out of nowhere. The rider swung past Sage and slowed just enough for him to hop on back.
Adam surged forward, but the bike headed for the trees. Within just a few seconds, it disappeared.
Sage was gone. Not a single shot had been fired.
Something about that was off, but he was too distracted to waste time figuring out what. Mira was on the ground, bleeding, and that was unacceptable.
Soldiers were rushing past Mira by the time Adam reached her. She tried to stand, but he held her down. “Not yet. Let’s see to your bleeding first.”
He ripped a strip from the bottom of his shirt and folded it into a pad. He pressed the fabric against her wound, being careful not to block the flow of blood to her brain.
“Follow him,” ordered Payton. “Plan Delta.”
Adam had no idea what Plan Delta was, but boots pounded the ground as men veered off in various directions. In the distance, he heard small engines roar to life. A helicopter’s motor started to whine.
“He’s gone, isn’t he?” asked Mira.
“We’ll find him.”
“I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t figure out how. Every move that Bella taught me would have shoved that knife into my throat.”
“You were about to do it anyway, weren’t you?” he asked.
“I didn’t see any other way.”
A medic appeared by her side and checked the wound. “It’s not bad, ma’am. A little surgical glue and you’ll be good to go.”
Mira clutched Adam’s hand as the medic worked. It didn’t take long to do the job, and the soldier was off again, ready to join the others.
Adam helped her stand, angling her body so she wouldn’t see the bloody mess left on the ground. Payton stepped in front of them.
“I’m sorry about that, Mira,” he said.
She balled up her fist and slammed it into his face. His head snapped to the side. Blood leaked from his split lip. Mira sagged at the sight of it, forcing Adam to grab her around the waist.
“I deserved that,” said Payton, rubbing his jaw.
“You let him go. You could have shot him, but you let him walk out. How could you? You know what he’s capable of.”
“We’ll follow him. See where he goes. Maybe he’ll lead us back to one of the labs.”
“That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?” asked Adam. “You wanted him to escape.”
“No, I wanted him to tell Mira where his labs are hidden. This was the backup plan.”
Her whole body was shaking now. She’d been through too much, too fast. He needed to get her somewhere she felt safe.
“You’re taking us back now,” said Adam. “No drugs this time.”
Payton shook his head. “No need. This wasn’t our secure facility. We just wanted you to think it was so you would play along.”
Mira pushed away from Adam and stepped back. “Can I just say how fucking sick to death I am of being played? I am not a tool that either one of you can use for your own purposes. If either one of you tries to use me again, I’m going to use every single one of my many and talented brain cells to ruin your lives. I might create false warrants for your arrest, or alter your medical records so that you can’t get a Band-Aid without a psych hold. I’ll bug your houses and cars and follow you everywhere until I have the most embarrassing video footage possible, which I will then post online. I’m not above a little creative editing. And as soon as you think the humiliation and pain is over, that’s when I’ll really put my mind to fucking up every facet of your existence.”
Adam didn’t doubt for a second that she would do just as she said.
“You’re upset,” said Payton. “Come back inside and lie down.”
Mira got up in the older man’s face and growled. “Where is my gun?”
Adam moved slowly, as he would when approaching a rabid animal. With care, he settled his hand at the small of her back and pitched his voice too low for Payton to hear. “Let me take you home.”
She looked up at him, fury and fear evident behind the golden starbursts in her eyes. “Home? I can’t go home. Dad is out there. We have to go find him.”
“We will,” said Payton. “My men are following him.”
“Your men let him go once. What’s to say they won’t do it again?”
“They’ll do as ordered, just as they did a few minutes ago. You don’t have to like it, Mira, but it’s not going to change the way things are.”
“I can’t believe he’s alive. Out there. Free.” Tears pooled behind her lashes. “I was supposed to finally be safe.”
“You are safe. I’ll make sure of it.” Adam wrapped his arm around her waist in a show of support. She leaned into him just enough to make him hate the man who’d weakened her to the point that she needed Adam’s help.
“No one can promise that. Not while he’s still alive.”
“Let me worry about Sage,” said Payton. “Go home. Get some rest. I’ll be in touch.”
“Where are we?” asked Adam.
“About a hundred miles outside of Dallas. I’ll have a driver take you back.”
Adam shook his head. “No. Just give me the keys. I’ll take her home myself. You’ve done enough damage for one night.”
Payton stared at him for a long second. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. I’ll pick up the car tomorrow.”
Mira stood up straighter, leaning less of her weight on Adam. He wasn’t sure if he liked that she was strengthening or if he liked having her pressed against him more. “I want to stay until you find him.”
“No, Adam’s right. You need to get some rest. You’ve been through hell tonight.”
“I’ve been through much worse than this and survived.”
Some of which was Adam’s doing. That fact was not lost on him.
Never again.
“Go. I’ll call you when he’s back in custody. There’s nothing more you can do here but get in the way.”
Before she could argue more, Adam said, “I’ll have my cell on. Call the second you know something.”
“I will,” said Payton. “Cars are that way. I’ll see to it you get what you need.”
For some reason, Adam was certain that while Payton’s words were true, there was still something he was hiding.
Had Adam been alone, he would have pushed for answers. But he wasn’t alone, and Mira was in no shape to drive. Strangely, seeing her home safely held more interest for Adam than digging for answers.
But answers would come. Once Mira was safe, Payton’s secrets would not be.
Chapter Twenty-two
It took nearly two hours to get home, and Mira fought the urge to cling to Adam’s hand the whole time.
Her father was alive. Free. Walking around.
How in the world was she ever going to relax again? How would she ever sleep again?
“Do you want to talk about it?” asked Adam. He reached over and curled his fingers around hers. The heat of his skin surrounded her, giving her something to think about other than the fact that her father was a free man.
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