by Linzi Baxter
I wanted to break through the bars of my cell and kill the man. The rage that was burning inside me was like nothing I had ever experienced.
I rested my head against the cement wall. “When is all this torture going to start?”
The urge to mentally prepare for what would happen to me was strong. I didn’t know if I could endure what I went through last time. A picture of Brock flashed through my mind, and I knew I would endure hours of torture to see his smiling face again.
The white door on the other side of the room opened. I watched as two men walked in, neither of whom I recognized. But I knew the man walking behind him. I had spent hours having nightmares about him. He was carrying a four-foot bullwhip. It looked like the one he had used on me years ago. I had watched men use the same whip in the club. They would wield it with so much precision that the women would orgasm in minutes. I had a feeling I would be experiencing a totally different kind of pain. That whip would tear up my skin. I hoped Brock would still love me with all the new scars I was about to receive.
“Looks like that answers your question. Let me know when you’re done.” He looked over his shoulder at me before he left. “I want to give her a try this time.”
I would need all the strength I had to make it through this. I knew he would use the whip on me for an hour before stopping. If I fought him, I knew it would drain some of my strength.
When that first lick of the whip cut my skin, I closed my eyes and dreamed of Brock.
21
Brock
The team was on the corporate jet on our way to Jessica’s location. I looked down at my watch for the hundredth time. It had been eighteen hours since Jessica went missing. How much would she have to endure?
“Looking at your watch will only add to your stress.” Mia sat in the chair next to me. She’d been chatting with the team for the last half hour.
Neal looked up from his laptop. “We’re all stressed. She’s like my sister, and I feel like I failed her.”
Eric leaned back into his seat. “Over the past few months, Jessica has become dear to all of us. I’m having a hard time not imagining the torment she could be going through.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine what she might go through. We’d all seen the photos of her last capture. That thought sent a shiver deep down to my bones.
“We will find her,” John muttered under his breath.
Antonio aimed his glare at Mia. “We need to understand that everyone is stressed instead of telling each other not to be. Sam should have killed this man when he got to Shialia.”
Blaming other people would not fix the problem. We needed to band together. Going over the plan again would help keep us distracted.
“Let’s go over this again.”
Mia perked up beside me. “Once we land, I’ve arranged for a helicopter.”
I reached over and grabbed the blueprints to the location where Jessica was being held. I pointed to the north corner of the building. “This is where Sophie said Jessica is being held. I would feel better if we could find out who Sophie’s source is and that we aren’t flying in blind.”
“Sophie would double-check her source. I think you should land the helicopter here.” Neal pointed to a clearing on the map. “Then hike up to the compound. I repositioned some of the satellites so I can watch you guys.” Neal was going to stay back. He wasn’t trained in the field.
I had cracked the code into the network where Jessica was being held. I was holding off on going in full force in case they noticed someone messing around. “Here is the IP and network information to get into the network.” I handed Neal everything he needed. “Wait until we get close before going in just in case they have network sniffers and find us looking around.”
The pilot notified us we were landing. It was time to get my woman back.
Jessica
It felt like he had been using the whip on me for days. I could no longer hold my head up because of the pain, and I was fading in and out of consciousness. Finally, I felt someone remove the shackles from my wrists. My body immediately went limp. They dragged me to the other side of the room and dropped me on the floor.
I could feel the blood running down my back. I wasn’t sure how many lashes I had taken. I lost count after ten. The pain was so strong all I could see was darkness.
The whip had torn my clothes to shreds, and they were lying on the side of the room. One of the men that took me down had left. The other man sat on the chair outside of my cell door. He was concentrating on his phone.
A loud bang rang through the room. I was still lying on the floor when a shudder of vibrations ran through the cement. At first, I thought I was shaking from shock and cold, but then another loud bang shook the floor.
The guard in the room was no longer sitting on the chair. He ran to the main door to look down the hall. On the third boom, my cell door flew open. If I was going to get out of here alive, I needed to help myself. The pain faded a little bit, and I used all the adrenaline I had. Putting one hand under the other, I pushed myself up. I had to work through the pain. Walking as quietly as I could, I came up behind the guard and grabbed his gun from its holster.
He spun around. I didn’t have time to think about what I was doing. I closed my eyes and shot. I heard a loud thump and groan. When I opened my eyes, the guard was down. I slid his body back into the room. I hid behind the door when I heard footsteps running down the hall. I needed to think of something to help keep the pain at bay. On an average day, ninety-three Americans were killed by guns. I wondered if mercenary kills were part of the national statistics.
The footsteps bypassed the room, so I searched the man for another gun. I wanted more than anything to put clothes on but was worried about how much the fabric would hurt against my back.
I opened the door as quietly as possible. Gunfire was echoing through the building. Another stream of bullets, followed by shouts.
Disorder rang through the building. A feeling of hope sparked in my heart. Maybe it was Brock and his team.
Turning off the safety on the new gun, I held it out in front of me and turned the corner. I saw Eric across the room. Elated, I started toward him.
Pain erupted on my left side. A scream tore from my mouth. The pain made me stumble for a second and lose my footing. When I went down, an enemy approached. He had his gun leveled at me, but before he could take a shot, Eric fired from the other side. A red circle spread across his chest as the man collapsed on the floor.
Eric rushed over and pulled me behind a couch. I could see the worry in his eyes. “We need to get you to the hospital.”
“That’s probably a good idea. In 2014, a study done by Penn U figured out the mortality rate for gunshot wounds is around twenty-seven percent. So we should hurry.”
He reached over the top of the couch and pulled down an afghan. It was soft and wouldn’t hurt as bad on my skin. The bullet wound was still oozing blood on my right side. I used part of the blanket to stop the bleeding. The world was starting to fade in and out.
Eric reached up to his ear. “I have the queen.”
He alerted the team of my status. “You need to hold on. John is causing a distraction for us. We’ll be able to get out of here in a few.”
A few seconds later, the building shook, and I could hear the windows breaking from the explosion. John was going big with his distraction.
Eric reached up to his ear to hear his teammates. “We need to move. We’ve got more incoming.”
I needed to tell them about Axmed’s brother. “Eric, he has a twin. There are two of them.”
He notified the team about both targets. “The team will take care of it. Let’s get you out of here. We know he has a twin. If they are both here, we can take them both out.” Eric looked over the couch. “Stay here for a second. I need to see if the coast is clear.”
Eric got up and looked around the corner, then motioned for me to follow. While Eric was looking one direction, Ashkir walked up behind him fro
m the other and hit him across the head.
My scream echoed through the main part of the building. I leveled my gun at the second man who had destroyed my life, and Ashkir had his gun leveled at me.
****Brock****
When Eric notified us he had Jessica, a shimmer of hope crossed my mind. I rounded the corner and headed toward Jessica and Eric’s location. I caught sight of Axmed heading toward the back door. I couldn’t let this man escape. He has caused Jessica so many nightmares already.
I raised my gun and fired two shots—one to the back of the head, and one to the chest. Axmed fell to his knees. I turned and hurried toward Jessica’s location. I needed to see her. Eric had not said how she was doing.
A bloodcurdling scream came from their direction. I knew it was her. I took off at a dead sprint toward her. When I finally made it into the room, I halted abruptly. Eric was lying on the floor, unconscious. A man that looked like Axmed had a gun pointed at Jessica’s head.
He hadn’t seen me enter the room. He was focused on Jessica. Blood matted Jessica’s hair. The blanket she had over her was covered in blood. I needed to get her to the hospital. Not wasting any more time, I leveled my glock and took a shot. I squeezed the trigger, and the man dropped to the ground.
“Jessica!” I yelled as she collapsed as well.
I rushed to her side and swept her into my arms. Eric was starting to come around. I signaled for help, and John notified me over the com he would help get Eric out.
Out on the lawn, Mia was waiting in the helicopter. The remainder of the team would stay back and clean up. They were going to make sure no one was left to torment Jessica again.
I put the headphones on when I entered the helicopter. Jessica was still in my arms. Her breathing was faint, and I couldn’t get a look at her wounds. From the amount of blood on the blanket, I had a feeling it was bad. It looked like she was missing her clothes. I couldn’t let my mind wonder what happened.
“How far?” I barked at Mia through the headset.
“We’re cleared to land at the hospital. A few more minutes, and we will be there. Keep talking to her.”
Jessica was going very pale in my arms. “I swear I’m hiring a doctor the second we get back. Our next teammate will be medically trained for the field.”
The second the skid of the helicopter hit the hospital roof, a team of doctors and nurses ran toward us. One of the male nurses pulled her from my arms and laid her on a gurney. Within seconds, tubes were plugged into her arms, and she was wheeled toward the hospital doors.
The team joined me at the hospital when the cleanup was done. Neal was sitting next to me. Eric had just gotten out of the emergency room. He’d had his head examined. Mia and John were sitting across from me in a deep discussion.
“I still don’t understand how we missed so much,” I mumbled to myself. Everyone was still in their tactical gear. Eric and I were covered in Jessica’s blood.
“The second there were talks about him having a brother, I looked,” Neal said. “There are no records. His mom had a home birth, and for some reason, they never declared both kids. I have a feeling she sold one brother and kept the other.”
“From what I understand, they reconnected about twelve years ago. Axmed and Ashkir had different last names. Jessica’s dad needs to explain the missing information,” Eric added.
Mia came over and sank into the chair next to me. “Jessica is kick-ass and will make it through this. She did once before. She will be out of surgery soon, and then you can go grovel for being such an ass.”
I was so worried about her injuries that I hadn’t stopped to think she might not want me there.
Mia poked an elbow into my side. “She will take you back. All you have to do is explain what happened.”
I was about to respond when the doctor came into the waiting room to let us know Jessica was out of surgery and resting. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I put my face in my hands and let the tears fall. For what happened to Jessica. For almost losing her.
They made me wait another couple of hours before I could go back and see her. They had her turned on her side, and she looked pale in her hospital bed. But she still looked so beautiful to me. When I sat down and grasped her hand, her eyes fluttered open, and she gave a slight smile.
“Brock,” she rasped. “Love you.”
I had to squeeze my eyes shut. I was overcome with emotion from everything that had happened. “I love you too. I’m so sorry for everything.”
Jessica’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you for coming. I knew you would come for me.” Jessica blinked to get her eyes under control. “I’m sorry I ran. I realized too late that I was wrong.”
“No matter what happens, I will always be there for you. Always. But you will be getting a permanent tracker.”
Jessica was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. I knew I needed to let her sleep.
“Stay,” she whispered. “Please, stay.”
There was no place I would rather be than next to her forever. I would spend the rest of my days making up for what happened.
22
Jessica
My back was throbbing. How could one person endure so much pain in one lifetime? I shifted to lie on my back, and someone grabbed me.
“Jessica?”
At the sound of Brock’s voice, I opened my eyes. “Where am I?” That was a dumb question. I was in a hospital. The gray walls and the unconfortable bed should have been my first clue. If that wasn’t enough, the hospital smell was strong.
“You’re at a medical facility in Somalia. The doctor said you will be discharged in a couple hours. We’re going to Shialia.” Brock had dark circles around his eyes.
I was frustrated with myself for putting him through so much pain. “Sorry,” I rasped.
“Nothing to be sorry about. I will always come for you,” Brock said with a lopsided smile.
The events of the night before came crashing back—the torture, Eric getting hit, the gun, being shot. “Is Eric okay?”
“Eric is fine. The team headed back to the States once they knew you were okay.”
“Can you climb into bed with me? I need to feel you next to me and get the thought of that man out of my head.”
Brock must have needed to be close to me too. He rose, went to the door, and locked it. Then he climbed into bed and pulled me to his chest. “I was so worried,” Brock choked out.
My body pressed against Brock’s made his length stir. I could feel him hardening against my body. The need for him to be in me was so strong. I reached into his jeans and pulled out his length.
A groan escaped Brock. “No. Your back.”
Tightening my grip, I started to stroke his cock. “I can be on top.”
I knew I was ready for him. When Brock was near, my body hummed with anticipation. I crawled on top of Brock without waiting for an answer. Pulling my panties to the side, I slid down on his length.
It was intense. I was lost in the passion of riding him. The first orgasm tore through my body within seconds.
He grabbed hold of my hips, holding me in place, and thrust up with the urgency of a man possessed.
“Come with me now.”
At his command, I exploded and dropped to his chest.
Being with Brock made all my nightmares go away. I couldn’t imagine spending my life with anyone else. I couldn’t wait to be his wife.
“Marry me,” Brock demanded.
I was startled for a second, wondering if I said my thoughts out loud.
“Jessica, I want you by my side for the rest of my life. Please be my wife.”
“Yes.” There was no way I would spend my life with anyone else. I leaned over and pressed my lips to Brock’s.
We were lost in a kiss when a loud pounding came from the door. I was glad Brock thought to lock the door before sliding into bed with me.
The pounding continued, and I couldn’t help but giggle. He rushed to stand and zip up his pants before opening t
he door.
A female nurse entered the room. “That is to remain unlocked,” she demanded. Turning on her heels, she walked up to Brock and poked him in the chest. “Jessica is hurt. You save your sexy time for when she is well. You couldn’t even wait an hour. Men!”
I had to pull the sheet up over my face to hide the smile that spread across it.
She came over to my bedside and checked my vitals. “I have your release papers for you. You can leave. Make him wait next time.”
Needing to save Brock from the nurse, I said, “Actually, I jumped him.”
“I like you. He needs to learn to say no.” She had a smile on her face when she walked toward the door. “He’s a good guy. Wouldn’t leave your side.”
When I started to get up and get dressed, Brock was by my side. My clothes were destroyed in the kidnapping, so the hospital had given me a fresh set of scrubs. Patty would have something for me to wear when I got to Shialia.
“How long was I gone?” I asked.
Brock let out an aggravated groan. “It took us close to twenty hours to get you back. That was the longest day of my life. You have to promise me you’ll never take a tracker off again, no matter how mad you might be at me or any of us. There are crazy people out there, and I can’t go through that again. I thought I lost you.”
Since we were heading to Shialia, I was going to ask Patty if she could invent a new tracker. I wanted something smaller. When Sasha removed the one from my arm, I was in pain for a few days.
When I put the new scrub top over my head, I noticed the necklace was back. He must have put it on me when I was asleep. “When we get to Shialia, I will have another tracker implanted, as long as it is smaller than the last one.”
Brock must have noticed I was looking at the necklace. “I plan on getting you a permanent collar, and the collar will have a tracker. When we get back, we will go ring shopping, and we can have a tracker implanted in the diamond.”