by Lora Leigh
Jansen grunted as he shook his head then turned his gaze back to Emily. "I'll make certain you're taken care of," he told her then. "As soon as Diego and I hammer out a few details you'll be flown to that little chateau in Switzerland I told you about before. Elaine is already heading there, sweetheart. She's getting ready for you. Eagerly anticipating your arrival. Once we've sampled your no doubt used charms, Sorrell will then collect you."
A sob tore at her chest as her hand covered her mouth, denial raging inside her. "Elaine knows?" Her voice was raw with pain.
Jansen smiled softly, compassionately. "It was Elaine's idea, darling."
He turned to Fuentes. "Have your men inject him. Let's get this over with so we can leave."
Fuentes chuckled. "You have a soft spot for this one, Jansen," he commented as he flicked an amused glance at Emily. "Perhaps before you leave with her, I would like a taste of her as well. Why should our mad SEAL have her alone?"
Jansen stilled. "That wasn't the deal. Get him drugged and get the fucking cameras up. Get it over with so we can leave."
Fuentes sighed with mocking regret. "Perhaps you are right. I hear Kreiger has become quite besotted with her. Perhaps after a taste of her, I would not wish to release her, hmmm?"
"Don't make me kill you, Diego."
The sound of Diego's men's weapons snapping in preparation as Jansen moved forward Diego had Nathan's head jerking up again.
"Kill him, Diego." The fanatical glee in Nathan's voice was terrifying. "Do it. You'll gain points. Don't you want to gain points?"
Diego chuckled, much like an overindulgent parent.
"Ahh, if only I could give you your wish, my sad little friend. Unfortunately, he does still have his uses." He turned to his guards. "Prepare them. Let us get this done quickly. Do not drug the woman though."
"That wasn't the deal," Jansen snapped.
Diego shrugged once again. "Her willingness to be raped by you gains me nothing. Do not push your luck, my friend, I believe there are other matters you need my agreement on as well."
Emily felt the icy terror as it began to spread through her body. They were actually going through with this. Jansen was going to destroy them all without a twinge of regret.
"Kell will kill you, Jansen," she whispered hoarsely. "You know him. You know he will."
"He'll never find you, Emily." He smiled gently. "I truly covered my tracks this time, my dear. There's no way he even suspects where you are."
"He won't stop looking." Raw grief overwhelmed her, swamping her emotions, her soul. God, to lose him like this. To know that when he did find her, she would likely be so damaged that it wouldn't matter. As Nathan had proved, a mind could bear only so much horror.
"He may never stop looking, but his search will be in vain." His voice was gentle, his expression almost tender. God, he was so sick. There was something so twisted about him that he went beyond evil.
"Diego, you can inject our reluctant SEAL now. Let's see if your new dosage is actually accurate."
"No!" Emily jumped from the cot as Jansen turned to leave the room. "You can't do this, Jansen."
Rage was beating through her brain, whipping through her bloodstream, as her fist collided with his head. She hadn't meant to hit him. She had meant to plead. To beg.
"You little bitch."
Pain resounded through her head as his fist collided with it, throwing her back as she heard a roar from the corner of the room. Emily bounced against the wall before slumping to the floor.
"You will not do that again, Emily." Hard hands gripped her arms, lifting her from the floor and throwing her back to the cot as lights danced around her and an eerie buzzing filled her head. "The next time, I'll rape you myself."
Fury filled Jansen's voice as Emily fought to right herself, to force her eyes to focus on his enraged face.
"I'd rather die," she snarled, her voice rough, trembling from the dizzying sway of her senses. "I would kill myself first."
"Whore's Dust will change your mind," he snapped. "I saw the tapes of your detox, Emily. I saw how you screamed, how you begged to be fucked. They had to tie you down."
She tasted blood in her mouth and felt the numbness at the side of her face as she finally focused fully on him.
"And I'll scream Kell's name," she whispered raggedly, gloatingly. "Just as I did then. Imagine that one, Jansen. Jack off to it if you have to. You might force me to accept you, but it will always be Kell's name on my lips."
He snapped back from her, breathing roughly, his handsome face flushed with anger.
"Double that bastard's dose." He flicked his fingers toward Nathan. "I want him to hurt her. I want Kell Kreiger to see his best friend tearing her up." He shot her a triumphant smile. "Scream Kell's name now, Emily, while his brother in arms fucks you silly."
He swept from the cell as the soldiers converged on Nathan, syringe in hand, and held him down. He wasn't screaming, he was growling, snarling. Enraged animalistic sounds tore from his throat as they jabbed the needle into his arm and sent the diabolical drug into his body.
Emily collapsed on the cot as the cell door slammed shut and the key turned in the lock again.
"Well. Thanks there, Emily," Nathan said. "I believe they may have indeed given me a double dose."
Emily opened her eyes to stare back at him. "How long do we have, do you think?"
She had seen the videos as well, and knew the horrible, enraged lust she had experienced. How much worse would it be for him?
"Hell if I know." He fell back against the wall behind him. One second he was crouched on the floor, the next he was pushing himself closer to the wall. "Sometimes a few hours, sometimes a few minutes. They've been playing with the dosage and the strength. Maybe this one will kill me."
If possible, his eyes were brighter, glowing, eerie in the dim light of the room as his hands scraped at the side of the wall.
"I'm sorry," she whispered tearfully. "I'm so sorry."
"Kell won't get here in time." He grimaced. "There's no way he will get here in time. Ah God. I can't do this."
He pressed his head into the wall behind him as he stared up at the ceiling.
"Have you seen my wife?" he asked desperately. "Did you meet her?"
"No." She could see him tensing, feel him fighting the drugs tearing through him.
"Ahh, she's a wee lit'l thing. Soft as down, her flesh is." The accent thickened. "Her smile like sunshine. Her eyes the prettiest shade of gray. Like a dove."
"She sounds beautiful." Emily's breath released on a sob as his back arched, the chords in his neck standing out in sharp relief as a horrible groan left his chest.
"My beautiful lit'l lass. Will she remember I loved her?"
His head lifted, his arms dropping to his sides, and a second later a crude knife appeared in his hands. It was no more than a thin strip of metal, but the wicked edge that gleamed beneath the light had Emily swallowing tightly.
"Nathan?" Emily sat up straighter in the cot.
"I'd rather die than betray her," he whispered hoarsely, handling the knife confidently, running it over his fingers. "I've had this for a while now, contemplating, planning. You know, she'd rather I fuck than die. If it were her, I'd never hold it against her, would I, now? I'd love her until death took my last breath."
"Hold on, Nathan," Emily sobbed. "Please. Please hold on."
Emily stared back at him dry-eyed, her gaze caught by that knife. She knew what he was going to do. He was going to honor his vows to the woman he loved the only way he knew how. He would end up killing either himself or her.
"I love my wee lass," he whispered, his gaze caught by the knife. "Do ya know suicide is a sin, Emily?"
"Yes." Tears slid down her cheeks. "She wouldn't want you to commit a sin, Nathan."
"So is fornication," he whispered, turning that mad gaze back on her. "Betraying the vows I made to her. Rape is a sin. It's takin' what belongs to another. Which is the lesser sin? Takin' my own life or yours
? Or committin' adultery and rape, lass? Where is the greatest pain?"
Rage, pain, and madness were reflected in his eyes. He had survived this long because he hadn't broken those vows to his wife. Nineteen months he had been in this hell, and he hadn't broken.
"Nathan, just a little longer," she whispered. "Kell will be here. He'll take us both out of here and it won't hurt anymore."
"Everything hurts," he said roughly, dragging the blanket closer to his nude body.
"Will she know I loved her?" he asked as he huddled against the wall.
Emily felt her lips tremble. "She knows."
He paused, his eyes closing briefly before focusing on her once more. "I'm sorry," he said then. "It's the drug. It's hard to find her when the drug is like this. I search and search for her. I can hear her. But I can't find her."
For a moment wry humor entered his eyes before the madness took his gaze once again.
A scream echoed through the cell then. Emily's head swung toward the door, hearing the rat-a-tat of gunfire and voices suddenly raised in alarm. Her eyes flew back to Nathan.
"Kell." She moved carefully to the side of the cot. "Kell's here, Nathan. Do you hear that?"
He held the knife easily, tracking her every move.
"Listen, Nathan." The gunfire was closer. "He's here. You can't give up." Tears fell from her eyes then, fear and pain, rage and joy surging inside her all at once as Nathan stepped closer.
In his eyes she saw his death. The drug had stolen what little sanity Nathan Malone possessed and all that was left was the animal the SEALs had created. The drug could rule the body, but the man had been trained, honed, and molded into a creature of death. And rather than betray all he loved, he would die.
The man was stripped away now, and all that was left was the creature.
"Oh God, Nathan, please. He's here. Kell is here," she whispered beseechingly. "Don't let them take this from you. God, please, don't let them steal your rescue."
She had to make him see reason, had to make him listen. What had he said earlier? A certain position reminded him of his wife.
She laid her head back against the wall, revealing only her profile to him, fighting to breathe, certain this was her last chance. If he didn't see reason now, then she was going to be a bloody mess when Kell arrived.
"Kell is here," she said again, softer this time. She had no idea what his wife sounded like, but she was giving it her best shot. "He's come to rescue you, Nathan."
He blinked back in confusion.
"Don't you want to go home?"
His hand shook.
"I want to go home, Nathan. I just want to go home." She wanted to lie in Kell's arms, she wanted to hear him whisper to her again. "Let's go home, Nathan."
"Home is gone." His hand gripped the knife tighter. "Home is gone. Goodbye."
* * *
Stop that fucking copter, stop it now, goddammit." Kell sprayed a round of gunfire at the copter as it lifted off, wavering for a second before banking and heading out to sea and taking Fuentes with it. He was escaping again. "Son of a bitch." Throwing the assault weapon over his shoulder, Kell sprinted the few feet to the cell where Emily was being held.
Kell jerked the Beretta from the holster on his hip, shot the lock free and burst into the room. Into hell.
"Fuck!"
Naked, aroused, a homemade knife held in his hand, Nathan jerked Emily from the cot and pushed her behind him.
Irish blue eyes stared back at him in madness as Emily's dark eyes, wide with terror, watched him hopefully.
"He's drugged," she gasped. "The Whore's Dust. A lot of it."
"Shut up," Nathan yelled, the knife wavering in his hand. "Stay away from her. Let her alone."
Not his fault. She mouthed the words silently; tears tracking down her cheeks as Nathan dragged her closer to him.
That was his little fox. Always fighting for someone else.
"Nate." Kell kept his voice low despite the desperation clawing inside him. "Let's go, Nate. It's time to evac."
Nathan blinked back at him. "Evac?"
"The chopper is outside, Nate. Time to get the girl out of here and go home. Your wife is waiting for you, Nate. You gonna disappoint her?"
For a second, Kell swore he saw a hint of sanity in Nathan's eyes.
"They found the tracker," Nathan growled. "The heel won't work."
God! They would have cut that damned tracker out of the heel of his foot. Son of a bitch.
"We don't need it, Nate," he said softly. "Come on, man, let's go home."
"I won't let you hurt her," Nathan growled. "They left her here to hurt her. So you could hurt her. I could hurt her. Someone was going to hurt her."
"Not anymore, Nathan. We have Fuentes and Clay," he lied, his eyes locked on that knife. "Let's go home, man."
"Home?" The knife wavered as he seemed to stumble.
And then Emily moved. How she did it, how she knew to do it, Kell had no idea. Before he could jump for her, her elbow slammed into Nathan's undefended belly as her other hand locked beneath his wrist and pushed at it just enough to give Kell the chance to jump for Nathan and pull her free.
Free. He shoved her behind him, staring at Nathan carefully as rage flickered in his eyes a second before he slumped back to the wall.
"And here I thought he would have the nerve to kill if he found the chance."
Kell swung around, pushing Emily behind him again to stare down the wrong end of the pistol Jansen Clay was holding on them.
"Son of a bitch!" Kell cursed. "I'm just about getting sick of having you in my fucking face, Jansen. There are two teams of SEALs out there. Do you really think you're going to get away this time?"
"Only the three of you know about me." Jansen shrugged. "I kill you and it's over with."
"Wrong." Kell took great satisfaction in watching Jansen's eyes narrow almost fearfully. "We knew who had her. We tracked your wife to that chateau in Switzerland. She's being picked up by American agents even as we speak."
He felt Emily behind him, her slender fingers gripping the Beretta he had tucked into the back of his pants. Fear slammed into his gut.
"It doesn't matter," Jansen stated quietly. "Without witnesses, it will be very hard to prove. You can watch your friend die, then die yourself as I take Emily."
The gun turned on Nathan as Jansen's finger tightened on the trigger, and the little fox that Kell would have sworn would never hurt a fly fired the weapon from his side.
Point-blank at the center of Jansen Clay's chest.
The gun dropped from Jansen's fingers, his hand covering the wound as he turned his surprised gaze back to Emily.
"I didn't hurt you," he whispered in shock. "I was going to save you ..." He lifted his hand and stared at the blood staining it before his gaze returned to Emily. "I was coming for you—"
He collapsed to the floor as Captain Malone and Commander Charles rushed into the room.
"Em." Kell jerked around, prepared to snatch the gun from her nerveless fingers, prepared for the horror in her eyes. What he saw instead sent a surge of heat rushing through his veins. Her gaze was clear; only a glimmer of remorse touched the blue depths as she deftly turned her wrist, holding the gun, barrel pointing down, out to him.
"Monsters don't deserve to live," she said calmly. "I won't lose any sleep over killing him."
He took the gun carefully, tucked it in the band of his pants again then jerked her into his arms, holding her close, feeling his throat tighten with the emotion that suddenly filled it.
"God, I love you," he whispered.
Kissing her brow, Kell sighed deeply before releasing her just enough to turn and watch the men swarming into the room. The medics had come prepared for Nathan, but Kell wondered if anything could put the man together again.
He was slumped against the wall, naked, his eyes filled with madness as he glared at Jansen's dead body. His muscles twitched spasmodically, his once-strong body nearly emaciated.
&nbs
p; "Nathan?" The captain moved slowly into the room, staring at his nephew as tears filled his light blue eyes. "Boy, you're slacking off. Did I give you permission to rest?" Malone's tone snapped with strength.
Nathan jerked, dragging the blanket closer as he tried to struggle to his feet.
"Do you walk out of here or do we carry you?" the captain barked.