Fire (A Special Agent Novel Book 4)

by C. P. Mandara

  By this time, I had stopped giving James the odd sly glance to see how he was doing. His expression never changed, and that meant he was doing a lot better than I was. Fighting to hold back tears, I couldn’t believe Adie hadn’t made a sound yet. When he started screaming, I would be lost, and all promises would be null and void. Adie should never have asked this of me, anyway. I bet if the situation were reversed, he’d probably tear his hand apart trying to get to me. That thought gave me pause. Adie’s never admitted he cares for me. We’ve slept with each other and shared a few secrets, yes, but our relationship is new and fragile. It wouldn’t take much to snap it. Was that Alain’s plan?

  I’m under no illusion that Alain isn’t fully up to date with everything that’s happening around him. His attack was orchestrated with precision and he’s left nothing to chance. It’s the sign of both a madman and a fucking good adversary. If he is this careful with everything he does, our chances of escape are slim at best. Sharkey won’t be sending men in to rescue us. She made that clear at the outset. I hate to think what it costs to train up a half decent assassin, but I’m confident it’s a lot. There’s no point throwing money down the drain for the sake of it. She’ll simply step back until a better occasion arises and then try again a few years down the road. If we want to get out of here alive, we’re on our own.

  Adie’s first scream made me bolt upright in my chair. Alain had drawn things out as much as he could, but he now had to get serious if he wanted results. The last whip mark had sunk deep inside his brother’s skin, biting swiftly through his flesh, and leaving a trail of devastation in its wake - otherwise known as blood. Alain gave him a further three merciless strikes before he had to stop and get his breath back. The man was now sweating and breathing heavily, so it came as no surprise when he removed his jacket and shirt. Interestingly, Alain’s body was not as beautiful as Adie’s. He didn’t work out to the degree his brother did. That didn’t mean he wasn’t slim and fit, but he was nowhere near as defined. He was still as strong as an ox, though, and I had a bad feeling he could wield that whip for at least another four or five hours. There was little chance Adie could last out that long under what Alain was throwing at him, though.

  Now, I’m not a genius, but even I had worked out that this wasn’t going to stop until Adie was unconscious. This was because neither one would back down, and they both had a point they wanted to prove. Unless Alain had something better up his sleeve, he was wasting his energy, or did he know something we didn’t? Maybe he was waiting for me to crack, hoping that I’d do his dirty work for him. The thought made me more determined to stay strong, although that was becoming increasingly hard as Adie’s screams became more ragged. His poor back was now a mess, but I didn’t know that because I refused to look at it.

  When Adie began dropping in and out of consciousness, almost delirious with pain, Alain finally took a break. Grabbing a bottle of water, he necked the thing down as he stared at us. By this time, we must have sat there immobile and silent for the best part of three hours. At the moment, I couldn’t even feel the pain in my hand, which should give you some indication of just how much I was suffering while watching Adie’s torment unfold.

  Turning to James first, Alain said, “Did you train her up?”

  James raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t teach her to kill, if that’s what you mean.”

  Alain’s mouth twisted. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Did you teach her how to whore herself out?”

  James looked amused for a second. “No. I think you taught her that, Alain. I’m pretty sure it was one of your perverse games that brought her here. Care to tell me what it was?”

  Alain grinned back. “Hasn’t she told you yet?” He then looked at me. “My, a woman who can obey orders. Who’d have thought such a thing existed? You don’t want to come work for me, do you?” He gave me a leer that sent shudders up my skin.

  “Nah, I hear the boss is an absolute asshole,” I replied. Alain’s face darkened.

  “Just make sure you remember that, Pretty One. If you annoy me, I’ll crucify you, and you won’t be able to handle pain like my brother over there. It takes practise to deal with that kind of shit. In fact, today’s he’s been fairly quiet. Normally, he’d have been screaming after the first half hour. I figure he’s trying to impress you, Lois. Am I right?”

  “Fuck you.” I looked straight ahead and made sure I gave nothing away. I couldn’t look at the bastard, anyway. The mere sight of him turned my stomach.

  “So, James, did you train her?” Alain was a like a dog with a bone. He wasn’t going to let this go.

  “No.” Interesting. Why did James want to keep that from Alain? It didn’t take long for the penny to drop. If Alain knew we’d spent time together, he could assume we cared about each other - if James cared about anyone - and that was a topic up for debate.

  Alain then sat himself down heavily on top of James’s hand. Jesus. I winced for him, although James didn’t make a sound. What was wrong with that bloke, anyway? Seriously, the man could have been a robot.

  “I know you did, James. Be a good boy and tell the truth.” Alain stood up and then paced behind us.

  “If you already know, the question is null and void, so what’s the point in asking it?” James was back to his bored voice. The dispassionate bastard was back.

  Alain was not amused. “Because I want to hear you say it. I want you to admit you trained that tight little throat to take cock. Did you make her enjoy pain, James? You’re quite good at that, I hear. A little bird tells me that Lois has even sampled one of your most advanced packages, so to speak. The ultimate guide to pain, was it?”

  “If you’re reeling all of this out to piss your brother off, you might want to check that he’s conscious first,” James said.

  “Oh, he’s conscious. While Lois is in this room, he doesn’t dare lose it. He’s afraid of what I might do if he nods off. At the moment, he’s just fucking with me. He needs a break, and so do I, as it happens.

  Changing tack, Alain then turned to me. “Did you enjoy being trained by James, Lois? Is he good at what he does? Does he turn you on?” It hadn’t taken me long to figure out that this was all designed to get a rise out of Adie.

  “He’s marvellous at everything. Next question.” My bored tone rivalled James’s. I had a feeling he’d be smiling right about now if the situation were different.

  “Did he fuck you, Lois? Did he train your ass to take cock? Did he shove his big, fat..?” I cut him off. I’d heard enough.

  “You know he didn’t, Alain. The butt plugs were just as effective,” I said brightly. I was damned if I would let him know he affected me.

  “So, he didn’t touch that pretty little cunt of yours? Not even once?” Alain raised his eyebrows. It seemed he was having a hard time believing that James could behave himself. If only he knew.

  “No. He didn’t touch me once. The man’s control is legendary. You should take notes.” That earned me a backhander across my face, but it was worth it. If he wanted to play us off against each other, I didn’t see why he couldn’t get some in return.

  “Who do you prefer, Lois? At Adamantines that first night, you had both of these men at once. Is it a two-for-one arrangement, or do you have a favourite?”

  I refused to let Alain make me see red. I wasn’t giving him what he wanted. He’d just have to learn to live with disappointment. “It’s work, Alain. I fuck to order. I don’t have time for relationships. You saw to that.” The fucker then smiled at me.

  “Would you fuck me, Lois? If I ordered you to?” Yes. In a heartbeat, but only because it would give me a chance to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze until there was no life left in those black, soulless eyes of his.

  “Absolutely. Want to go right now?” Batting my eyelashes at him, I waited for his response. I already knew it wouldn’t be that easy, though, so I didn’t get my hopes up.

  “Well, as nice as that proposition is, Lois, I’ve heard you�
�re a trained assassin. I tend to shy away from those.” Alain flexed his fingers as he looked at me and his eyes did their best to try and bore holes into mine. I knew Alain wanted me, though. I could see it in his eyes. Maybe I could use that to my advantage one day.

  “You could always station a few of your guards about, just in case I try anything kinky.” My voice was deadpan, and I was almost guaranteed to get into trouble for my outburst, but the itch to goad him was almost impossible to resist. To make matters worse, James snorted besides me.

  “Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?” Alain’s voice had dropped an octave, and the room went silent. Standing up, he then went to retrieve his whip, and I suddenly found the wood grain on my armrest fascinating. This was the armrest that didn’t feature my hand nailed into it because I still couldn’t look at that one.

  “One of you will crack before long, or there won’t be much of Adie left. My money is on Lois. James has always been a fucking iceberg. You could kill his own mother in front of him and he’d barely even blink, isn’t that right, James?”

  James didn’t bother to answer that question, though I probably wouldn’t have heard him if he had. My attention was once again focused on Adie. His back was already torn to pieces and covered in bright red ribbons of blood. I couldn’t imagine the amount of pain the poor bloke was in, but I knew I couldn’t watch much more of this without cracking. The only way I’d have been able to stay impervious in this situation was if I hadn’t known the person, and I knew Adie. He’d rescued my ass before, and the least I could do was return the favour.

  “Lois, don’t you dare.” James mumbled the words so quietly, I could barely hear them, but his furious glance in my direction convinced me I hadn’t imagined them. Blinking slowly, I risked a glance at him and gave him an almost imperceptible nod of my head. He’d notice it. James noticed everything. I could hold out for a bit longer, I decided. I owed Adie that much.

  The minutes bled into hours, and there was no end in sight. With each second that ticked down, my composure weakened. The crack of the whip had become so commonplace that I barely flinched when it came down now. My eyes were once again unfocused, but my mind was anything but. By this time, Adie had fallen limp in his restraints. He was regularly losing consciousness, and each time he did, Alain tipped a bucket of cold water over his head. His tortured screams were the only thing that reassured me he was still alive, and they were unbearable, echoing in my head repeatedly. They would haunt my dreams.

  James was faring better than me, as expected. He sat there, staring straight ahead, sitting as still as a statue. By now I was in pain, my body cramping up with having been immobile for so long. Starting to twist and turn as I tried to get some circulation back in my body, I knew this was the beginning of the end. I was going under.

  The first time Alain couldn’t revive Adie, I felt something snap inside me. They had to get him down from the post, cutting through the handcuffs, in order to give him some medical attention. I’m not exactly sure what they did, but it involved drugs amongst other things. The reason I couldn’t tell you what was happening was because my eyes were filled with water. I couldn’t see a damn thing. I was so close to losing it, a single sound from Adie would have set me off. The trouble was, he wasn’t making any noise at all now. His prone body lay crumpled on the floor, and for all we knew, the bastard was dead.

  “I can’t do this,” I whimpered on a sob, a hairbreadth away from hysteria.

  “Lois,” James growled. “He’s okay. They’ll get him back. You gave your word. He’ll never forgive you if you break it.” His voice was a little louder than mine, as he tried to press his point home. No one was paying any attention to us, anyway. Everyone was trying their best to revive Adie.

  “I don’t care. When they get him back, they’ll just torture him again. I can’t watch this. I’d rather someone killed me now.” My voice was a choked whisper, and I could barely speak.

  “Then you’re lucky I have one hand nailed to this fucking chair, or I’d come over there and do the job for you,” James grunted. His voice then softened. “It won’t be for much longer, Lois. Alain’s getting tired. He can barely swing the whip now. It’s just a waiting game. He won’t let Adie die - he needs him.”

  “Easy for you to say. That man’s a monster. I wouldn’t want to put my life in his hands.” I realised what I’d said the moment the words slipped out of my mouth and James immediately called me on it.

  “What do you think you’ve just done, Lois? We’ve given him all of our heads on a platter. Now we play the long game, and you learn to toughen up or you die.” He then shook his head. “Out of all the females I’ve ever worked with, you’re the only one I’ve ever met that looked like they might make it against Dumortier.”

  I gave him a dry look. “Gee. High praise indeed,” but what he’s doing is working. The tears are receding, slowly but surely. “How many females have you worked with by the way?”

  James held up his right hand and pretended to count on his fingers. He then swept it away and gave me a sideways glance. “Lots.” Giving me a smug smile, he winked at me.

  If I’d had the use of my hand, I’d have smashed it into his face. “Sometimes, you can be the biggest asshole alive, Leveritt.”

  “Only sometimes?” Our conversation was then cut short as one of Adie’s arms began moving and I, for one, forgot to breathe. Oh shit. He was alive. Thank God. My heart was now in my mouth and I began gnawing the edges of it.

  “Hang in there, Lois.” James’s face was now staring straight ahead once more, and his trademark stare of apathy was back. Meanwhile, I did my best to resurrect mine, but it was damn near impossible.

  When they got Adie back in the land of the living, it took three men to haul him up, as he was now a dead weight. This time they lashed his wrists to the post with rope. They didn’t need to worry about him escaping. There was no chance of that. He could barely put one foot in front of the other. He desperately needed hospital attention, but his brother wasn’t satisfied. Alain hadn’t got what he’d wanted, and he wasn’t going to stop until all of us had learnt our lesson.

  When the whip started afresh, Adie didn’t even have the energy to scream. His head whipped back and forth in agony, and the look on his face would be something I would remember for the rest of my life. To my mind, it was more pain than any man should have to bear in a lifetime. He looked as if someone had dropped him from a great height and smashed his body into the ground below - utterly broken. There would be no gluing him back together after this. He was walking a tightrope to insanity when I met him. If I wasn’t much mistaken - this would crush him. It would rip him apart and drive him insane. How did Alain not see that? How could he not see that he was killing his brother? Did he even care?

  Throughout all of this, Adie never once backed down. Not once did he give into his brother’s demands, though Alain repeated them again and again. This was an old fight, and neither brother was prepared to budge.

  Tears finally began pouring down my face. I couldn’t stop them, and now that the floodgates were open, a waterfall of emotion poured from me. What a sorry excuse for an assassin I was. I’d lost my fight. I’d broken my promise. I’d gone back on my word. No one should ever have to witness what I’d just seen, though, because somewhere deep inside of me, something also broke.

  “Stop it,” I finally choked out. When no one paid me any attention, I screamed it at the top of my lungs. Then, when all eyes were finally on me, I somehow pulled my nailed hand from the chair with a combination of white-hot anger, adrenaline, and rage. Rushing for Alain with all the speed my legs had left in them, I had only one goal in mind. Extermination.

  Chapter Five - James

  I watched Lois blow with a detachment that I shouldn’t have been able to pull off. In fact, it took every ounce of willpower I owned to sit still in my chair and not move a muscle. If I could make Alain believe I didn’t give a shit about her, or even better - make him believe that she was in love
with Adie, maybe he’d forget about his earlier threat to make me fuck her.

  I knew exactly what she was going through. Alain had put me through the wringer, time, and time again. No matter who you are, you always blow the first time. Being tortured and watching someone being tortured are two different things. There’s only so much the average human being can be expected to cope with - without proper training, anyway. To be fair to her - she’d done admirably well to get this far. It was more than I’d hoped for. Adie had asked the impossible of her, and there’s only so far you can go with that.

  Watching her sprint towards Alain with nothing but death and destruction on her mind, I prayed the guards wouldn’t pump her full of lead. Rage was clouding her reason at the moment, but there was no way she’d get her hands on him in this room. The odds were heavily stacked against her.

  It played out in slow motion in my head. Her staggered lurch forward as she ripped her hand from the chair, the acceleration as she locked eyes with her target, and the set of her jaw as she lunged forward to grab him.

  Don’t shoot her. For fuck’s sake, don’t shoot her. None of that was visible on my face, of course. I knew better than to give Alain that kind of ammunition. A second ticked by, and then another, and when no shots were fired, I risked a sly glimpse around the room. Everyone remained motionless. It was as if they’d all been waiting for this to happen, and I’d probably put money on the fact they’d been briefed for it.

  Lois didn’t bother going for his neck. That was the cold-blooded killer training coming through. She’d already figured out that with her left hand in tatters, she wouldn’t have the necessary strength to strangle the bastard. Instead, she went for his gun. Interesting move. She already knew there were no bullets in it, unless he’d reloaded in the break he’d taken. It was possible, but unlikely.