Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries Book 11)

by Lexi Blake

He was going to make sure this op ended happily, too.

  * * * *

  Mia was shaking by the time the plane taxied toward the hanger. Cargo planes didn’t land quite the same way corporate jets did.

  “You all right?” If Theo had been bothered by the landing, she couldn’t tell. He seemed perfectly steady.

  She was fairly certain she’d gone a nice shade of green. She managed to nod his way. “I’m good. Do you think I could get some clothes soon?”

  He grinned. “I was going to ask you why you were in a robe. Are you one of the girls Tony brings in? Robert’s going to love you, but you have to stay away from Victor. He’s my brother and I care about him, of course, but he’s not great with women.”

  She bit back a groan. This was what it was like to talk to Theo. He seemed almost normal one minute and then he forgot what she’d told him not ten minutes before. The only thing he seemed to keep a firm grasp on were his orders. He hadn’t left her side once. She’d even tried to ask for things like a bottle of water to see if she could get a minute or two alone, but he wouldn’t move.

  “Maybe you should stay close to me,” Theo said, his voice grim.

  “I will.” She was definitely going to try.

  The plane rolled to a stop and Mia’s stomach took a dive. They were here. She had no idea how long it would take Case to reevaluate and reorganize the operation, but she was sure he would be here as soon as he could. It was up to her to stay alive until then.

  That’s all she had to do. Stay alive.

  “Tony wants us to gather our gear and get ready,” a dark voice said.

  She looked up and it seemed as though Victor had gotten over his motion sickness. He loomed over her, his eyes staring down.

  Theo stood up. “I’ve got my bag. I’ll handle the girl. Why don’t you grab the computer equipment?”

  “The geek’s getting that,” Victor said dismissively. “He’s going to take care of the plane and then grab all his crap. I don’t know why we haven’t killed him yet.”

  “Because none of the rest of us can do what he does,” Theo replied simply. “Mother wants him alive. He stays alive.”

  She saw Hutch move through the plane’s wide hold. He was thinner than she remembered and there was a hollow look to his eyes. He stared at her for a moment before grabbing a bag and turning his back.

  What had he gone through? Something horrible, certainly. It was like his light had gone out and he was a husk of his old self, walking around.

  She wanted to call out to him, to say something, but Victor was watching her like a rabid lion waiting to pounce.

  “Stay away from the girl.” Santos strode from the front of the plane. He had a shoulder holster over his bulky body and Mia could see the big gun nestled in there. It looked like Santos was ready for a fight since he also had an AR-15 in his hands. “I told you she’s off limits. She’s worth more alive than dead. A lot more. If you touch her, I’ll cut off your balls and feed them to you.”

  Victor’s body went rigid. “Yes, sir.”

  Theo turned and offered her a hand up. “I’ll find something for you to wear.”

  “But she’s so pretty like that.” Robert was armed to the teeth, too. He settled a light jacket over his torso, but she’d seen the guns he was wearing. “And I’ve heard it’s pretty hot where we’re going. Although it might be fun to dress her. I think she’d look good in blue.”

  Dear lord, now she was going to be Robert’s Barbie doll. Still, she was surrounded by men with guns who might or might not know what they were doing. She gave him a smile. “Blue’s my favorite color.”

  She was going to have to depend on Theo and Robert’s better natures. Victor didn’t have one and Santos would kill her the minute she wasn’t worth more alive than dead. And she wasn’t sure what was going on with Hutch. He seemed so different. She would do anything she could to save him, but she wasn’t going to count on him.

  “Stop playing with the girl. We need to move. It looks like our contacts are here. Victor, finish securing the plane. We paid enough for it. It will be good to have a way out of here if we need it. Especially now that we have a pilot. I think Mr. Hutchins has been properly trained.”

  “A few years of torture will do that to a guy,” Hutch muttered under his breath as he walked by.

  So they’d done to him what they’d done to Tennessee Smith. The drug in small doses made hours seem like days, made the smallest pain into something monstrous. One of the potential future uses of the drug was in prison systems, to ensure criminals did their “time” but to keep crowding to a minimum. The prisoner would experience the time as if it was going by, but would come out of the drug’s influence to find only weeks had passed.

  Hutch had gone through that. There was no telling how much pain he’d experienced.

  “Let’s go and meet Dr. Gibson,” Santos said. “She’s off limits, too, but you can do what you like with the villagers around the clinic. I know you boys need to blow off some steam. Just wait until Mother gets here in a few days. She’ll wipe the girls’ memories so there won’t be trouble.”

  Awesome. Now McDonald was wiping the memories of the victims of rape.

  “I’ll make sure she has plenty of test subjects.” Victor winked Mia’s way, sending a shiver down her spine.

  Theo put a hand on her arm. “Come on. Stay close to me or Robert and you’ll be all right. Don’t talk to the new guys. Tony won’t like it. We’ll have you in a room to yourself very soon. One of us will make sure to watch over you the whole time.”

  Until they forgot to. She was going to figure out a way to defend herself. She silently thanked Ezra for all the training. After what happened in Colombia, she’d realized she’d panicked, and no amount of self-defense lessons could fix that. So Ezra trained her, made her stronger, more confident. If Victor thought she’d be an easy mark, he would find out she was a quick learner.

  She followed Robert off the plane, her bare feet hitting the metal of the stairs that led to the concrete floor. She was in some sort of hanger, out of sight. Hutch was standing to the side, his gaze on the two people waiting to greet them. His eyes were wide and his shoulders had straightened.

  He recognized them. Or at least one of them. Her heart started to pound. How far gone was Hutch? How much had they brainwashed him? She knew he hadn’t had the same protocols and memory wipes as Theo and the soldiers, but he was obviously complying with orders. Would he give up the game? Would he call out and tell Santos what was happening?

  Hutch’s eyes averted, but he didn’t say anything.

  Yet.

  “Hello,” the brunette with the ponytail said. “I was surprised that you moved up our agreed upon date.”

  She was frowning, her hands on her hips. It was probably easy to be aggressive when one had a massive, truly scary-looking dude by her side. The man standing next to the doctor was a mountain of muscle with what looked like a bad attitude. He had a gun on his hip and he wasn’t trying to hide it.

  Santos shrugged and seemed to attempt to look charming. “You know how these things go. Sometimes opportunity knocks and we must answer the door. I explained that we would certainly be more than happy to give you a small percentage of our latest endeavor.”

  Yeah, Mia just bet they would. Or they would put a bullet through the doc and take over her clinic. She doubted there was truly honor among these thieves. If Hope McDonald thought her research would be served by murdering her business partners, she would do it in a heartbeat.

  “Is everything arranged?” Santos asked, looking around.

  The doctor nodded. “Of course. We’ve got a small holding cell for your new friend. I take it Dr. McDonald isn’t with you. I was so hoping to meet her.”

  “We all were,” the mountain said in a thick Aussie accent. “She’s kind of become legend around these parts. There’s apparently a bunch of people in Liberia who definitely know her name.”

  McDonald’s first trials had been on unsuspecting patients
at her sister’s clinic in Liberia. Faith McDonald Smith had thought she was saving a small part of the world and her sister had been using her patients.

  Santos’s eyes tightened slightly and that relaxed set to his body suddenly wasn’t so casual. “She’ll be along in a few days. I’m surprised. I thought there would be a few locals. Don’t we need someone to help with the plane? We need to make sure it’s ready to go at all times. That was part of our arrangement.”

  The mountain moved in front of the doctor as though he could sense the change in Santos, too. “We thought you would want privacy for the girl.”

  They stared at each other for a moment.

  What was happening? Mia’s heart threatened to beat out of her chest. There was some tension running through the room that she didn’t understand.

  “Tomas, would you please escort our guest back on the plane. Now.” The gun made an appearance.

  Theo’s arm went tight around her waist and he started to back up.

  What? Why were they getting back on the plane? She couldn’t get back on the plane. Case would come for her here. If she got back on that plane, he wouldn’t know where she was.

  “Why? What’s wrong? Our orders were to settle in here and wait for Mother.” Theo simply picked her up when Mia tried to drag him down.

  “This isn’t right. Something’s off. I don’t think we’re alone,” Santos said.

  “Well, you always did have excellent instincts, you fucker.” Ezra stepped out from behind a barricade of boxes.

  She felt her eyes widen. “Ezra?”

  Santos, Theo, and Robert suddenly had guns pointed at her bodyguard, who was likely going to give her a pretty stern lecture.

  “Ezra was his brother,” Santos said, his eyes firmly on his target.

  The mountain of man with the doctor backed away, covering her as they retreated to what looked to be an office. When the door opened, she saw someone she never expected to see.

  Her brother was standing there. Drew was here in Africa, waiting for her.

  That meant Case was here. Tears pricked her eyes. He’d come for her. He was here and now she could practically feel him.

  “Give me the girl. I brought her brother with me. We can split the money. He’s ready to transfer funds as we speak. You don’t give me the girl and that big guy will kill Drew Lawless and you get nothing,” Ezra said, his voice flat.

  She went still. Could he be telling the truth?

  Santos’s whole body was tense, ready for action. “I’m supposed to believe you’re turning on the Agency for money?”

  Ezra didn’t seem freaked out to have so many guns on him. He strode forward. “Why not? I’m never getting back in the field. Fuck ’em. Isn’t that what you said? I thought about trying to get my hands on the drug, but there’s too much heat on McDonald. So when I realized you’d nabbed Mia, I decided it was time to make some cash. It was easy to tell her brother that I would arrange the transfer. He got on the plane himself. And it was very easy to figure out that you had to be dealing with Dr. Gibson. The Agency’s been looking into her, by the way. We suspect her of arms dealing.”

  Bullshit. This was Case’s plan. What was Ezra doing?

  He was trying to get her out of the line of fire. Case was trying to ensure her safety before he fought for his brother.

  It would have been easier for the Taggart brothers to simply overwhelm them. They would have had the element of surprise, but Case had chosen to risk the entire operation to ensure she wouldn’t be stuck in the middle of it.

  He was choosing her. Somewhere in this big hanger was a superhot cowboy who was so getting laid as soon as they got out of this mess.

  He was getting married, too, because she was never letting that man go.

  “Yes, she’s in trouble with some of her clients,” Santos replied. “It’s why she was willing to cut a deal with us.”

  “Now she’s cut a deal with me because I might have mentioned just how big this deal would be. They were surprised since you’d promised them a five percent cut of a million. All I had to do was mention that 4L Software was involved and suddenly they were very open to a new partnership.” Ezra clapped his hands together. “So what do you say? Let’s reunite brother and sister and get this thing done. He won’t transfer the money until he’s with her. Let her join him in the office and we’ll talk about how we’re going to split the money. Let one of your guards take her. How about the blond one?”

  Theo stiffened behind her. “I can handle that asshole.”

  Santos moved back, though he never took his eyes off Ezra. “I suspect there’s more than one asshole waiting for you. Damn it. Does the bitch have a tracker on her? I never thought to look.”

  “Give me the girl, Santos, and you might make it out of here alive.” Ezra lined up his shot.

  “Back in the plane, boys. We’re leaving now,” Santos ordered.

  A shot crashed through the hanger and Ezra’s body jerked around and he went to the ground as Theo dragged her back. Victor was on the stairs of the plane and he hopped down, ready to fire again.

  Ezra was down. Oh god. She hoped Case stayed somewhere safe. She was right back where she’d been in Colombia and all she wanted was for Case to be safe. She would go with Santos, do anything, endure anything so Case would live.

  And she suddenly realized he was out there thinking the same damn thing.

  Case wasn’t going to protect himself. He was about to make himself a big damn target. And that meant she couldn’t get on that plane.

  Ezra sat up and took his own shot and then chaos reigned.

  Her world suddenly filled with gunfire as the team came out of hiding. She caught sight of Sean and Ian Taggart, but she didn’t see Case.

  He would be there. He would be right in the thick of the fight.

  Theo’s arm tightened around her waist and he hauled her up and back as he began to retreat.

  To her right, Robert rolled away, firing as he looked for cover.

  She had to get to cover, too. She needed to get to that office. It was where Ezra wanted her to go so that meant it was where Case wanted her. Out of the action so he could do his job.

  He would sacrifice Theo to save her. She had to take herself out of the equation so her man never had to make that choice. She loved him too much to make him sacrifice.

  Unfortunately, that meant getting the fuck away from Theo.

  “Stay calm,” Theo whispered in her ear. “I’ll have you safe in a moment.”

  Theo popped off two quick rounds his oldest brother’s way. Ian Taggart moved quickly for a big man. He rolled off to his left to the safety of cover the Humvee he’d been hiding behind offered.

  Theo was the real danger because no one was willing to take him out, but he was damn good at his job.

  She thought about everything Ezra had taught her. Defense wasn’t hot. It wasn’t emotional. It was a cool decision to win a battle.

  She let Theo drag her, giving him nothing at all to work with but her dead weight.

  “Damn it.” Theo forced her up, managing to get her to the stairs.

  Mia watched as Victor laid out a pattern of fire to allow Theo to haul her up. She brought her elbow up and back, hitting his solar plexus hard. Mia’s knees hit the concrete. No time for pain, though it flared through her system. She had to make it to that door where the intensely large Aussie was no doubt holding her brother back. Thank god. The last thing she needed was Drew out here trying to get to her.

  She shoved off the ground, trying to sprint for the door.

  An arm wound around her, dragging her back up. “We have to get back to the plane.”

  He was so stubborn. Just like his brother.

  “Erin! Erin loves you. Erin misses you so much,” she screamed over the wail of gunfire.

  It was mean, but she knew how to hurt him. Nothing affected him so much as the very sound of Erin’s name. She heard him hiss, but he kept moving. He dragged her up the stairs.

  “Erin had
your baby, Theo. She had your son and she’s on her way here.” She couldn’t let up. She wasn’t as strong as Theo, but she had other weapons at her disposal. “Erin wants to see you so badly.”

  He stumbled back, briefly letting her go.

  She immediately took off. The office. She had to make it there. If she could only make it there.

  A dark object came out of nowhere, shoving straight into her gut. She heard someone scream, a masculine voice calling out her name. But she was falling backward, all the air whoosing from her lungs in a single, painful rush. She felt herself hit the ground and then she was looking up, the world a bit unfocused as Theo gripped her, hauled her up. Someone—she thought it was Robert—was giving him cover. Her world upended as Theo tossed her over his shoulder like a bag of grain. She had the briefest glance at what was happening around her and then her whole world stilled, slowing down and focusing on one point. Case. He was running toward her, his face a mask of horror as he tried to get to her.

  And then he stopped and dropped to the ground as a bullet hit him squarely in the chest.

  Mia screamed as she watched him fall.

  Theo moved more quickly this time. Mia used her fists, pounding at his back, her only thought to get back to Case. She held her head up, trying to see what the hell was happening. The gunfire was rapid, filling the world with rage. She watched as Victor’s head ripped back and his body fell. Liam O’Donnell was advancing, a gun in his hand as he took down Victor and seemed to be heading toward Case’s body.

  His body. That had been a solid heart shot.

  Someone was screaming. They were louder than the damn gunfire. That wail was terrible and she tried to close her ears to it.

  “Please stop.” Theo shoved her down on the seat she’d occupied before. “Stop screaming.”

  She looked up at him. His face was white and there was blood on his shirt. She wasn’t sure where it had come from.

  “Theo, please.” Her voice sounded cracked and tortured even to her own ears. “You have to help Case. Your brother is out there. Please.” She couldn’t stop the tears that were streaming down her face. “Please help him. Let me go to him. I love your brother so much.”