by Karen Anders
“Leave my family out of this.”
He rose, and the breeze from the open door carried with it the taint of salt, the overhead fan whirring with each gust of wind and revolution.
He came from behind the desk. “This is the deal for you. Give me the address of the safe houses, and I’ll make your death painless and quick.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t know they were moved into safe houses. NCIS must have thought that was necessary.”
He backhanded her across the face, and she tasted blood. Then he leaned forward and began to describe exactly what he was going to do to them. “I don’t believe you.”
Knowing she was approaching emotional overload and knowing she couldn’t handle many more graphic details without coming completely apart, Neve swallowed and closed her eyes. God, it was so awful, so horrible—and unbearably painful. “Leave them alone!” she shouted.
He looked completely unaffected at her outburst. “If you’re hoping for someone to save you, the little girl you brought with you and the sniper are all neutralized.”
“Sniper?”
“Yes. Oh, you didn’t know about him?” he sneered. “I don’t believe you. We’ll find the other man with you. It’s only a matter of time.”
Rock had lied about him? Why? Oh, God. It must have been Tristan, even after she’d asked him not to involve her brother. She could only wish she could get a chance to find out from him. It was good Set hadn’t captured Rock. That was something she could hope for—Rock figuring out how to save them.
He kicked the chair over and Neve hit the rug, the back of her head impacting so that she saw stars.
As he moved near, sweat pooled at the base of her spine, at her temples. The clamminess of her skin reeked of fear. She had nothing in her favor. For a moment, she simply lay there, absorbing the pain.
“You will give me what I want, then you will know my agony.”
She worked her jaw and glared. “I will never betray my family.” It was the wrong thing to say. He called out, and when a man entered the room, he motioned to the flunky, who dragged her off the floor and shoved her into the chair. Then Set grabbed her face in a punishing grip. Neve’s defiant gaze met his. He wanted fear, terror. He wouldn’t get it.
“We will see about that. When I’m done with you, you’ll be begging to tell me.”
Chapter 16
Rock approached the camp and saw an ambush had been set up. Pulling out his KA-BAR, he went to work, eliminating the threat. But Neve and Opal were gone. His lungs suddenly so tight it was impossible to get air into them, he realized their sniper must have been eliminated or he would have protected Neve. A rush of emotion jammed up in his chest, and he looked off into the distance to the exact location he would set up for a perfect shot at the Falcon. God help him, he had to keep his head on straight. And he had to do right by her. Because, in the end, her life depended on it.
There was no room for error here. His next steps were to get to Neve and Opal and get them out of there. They had to regroup and take a different tactic. But he knew where this bastard lived; he still had contacts in the marines. He would call in favors and would eliminate the threat to Neve one way or the other.
He wanted to check on the sniper. If there was even a chance he was still alive, that would give them all an advantage, but he couldn’t waste a moment.
With all the skills he’d learned as a marine, he made it back to Set’s fortress undetected. It was heavily fortified, and he would have to take the time to find a weakness. There was always one he could exploit.
He only hoped they could hang on until the path inside was uncovered.
*
Neve sat against the wall, the floor beneath her nothing but dirt, damp, muddy dirt, the kind that soaked into her clothes and left a clammy, gritty feeling against her skin. Bars separated her and Opal, and they had huddled together for comfort as close as the metal would allow. The teenager was scared; the light of it was in her eyes. But she put on a tough front and Neve was thankful for her strength in the face of these overwhelming odds. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Rock wasn’t in any of the cells. Opal confirmed that she’d overheard two guards who said the marine was being elusive and had killed a contingent of men who had gone to their camp to ambush him.
If anyone could get them out of this, it would be him. She had complete confidence in his abilities. The door rattled open and she heard footsteps, then a teenage boy, looking furtive, approached Opal’s cell.
“José,” she said fiercely, her voice filled with joy. She rose and ran to the cell, gripping the bars.
“Opal. What are you doing here?” His voice was strained.
“I had to come for you, José, I had to. I brought friends, but we messed up and got captured.”
He shook his head, his expression one of sick fear and worry. He was the spitting image of Opal, and Neve immediately thought of Nova and how mad she must be right now to be holed up in protective custody, unable to fly rescue helicopters. She squeezed her eyes shut as the two teenagers conversed, missing her sister, worried that Tristan could be dead if he had been the sniper they had taken out. She burned with the need to do something.
“Neve,” Opal said, motioning her over. “This is my brother, José.”
He nodded in her direction. “He’s going to get us out of here.”
“I will come for you tonight. It’s best to escape when it’s dark.”
“I have a friend outside the walls. He’s a marine, and his name is Rock. He will help you.”
“I won’t be able to get outside,” he said reluctantly. “Set doesn’t realize right now that Opal is my sister, but if he makes the connection, he’ll throw me in here with you. I don’t want to take the chance that he’ll remember. We need to leave as soon as possible.”
The sound of the door opening made him look quickly over his shoulder. “Be ready,” he whispered as he concealed himself. A man came down the short hallway, and as soon as he passed José’s hiding spot the boy melted out of the shadows and ran down the hall. Neve didn’t even hear the door close behind him.
The guard ignored Opal and went right to Neve’s cell. The key made a jingling sound, then a grinding noise as it turned in the lock. A second man appeared at the end of the hallway and trained a gun on Opal. It was clear if she tried anything, he would shoot Opal.
Neve scowled and thrust out her arms for him to snap on the cuffs. He grabbed her by the upper arm and marched her to a room, then closed the door behind him.
There was a chair and a table. It looked like an interrogation room, everything bare and dirty.
Finally, the door opened and Set entered. “Your man appears to be quite elusive. It’s no matter, we will have him soon and then won’t that be fun...for me. If you won’t give me the information I want, you can watch while I carve his heart out.”
“You’ll never catch him. He’s invisible as air.”
“I suspect that girl out there is nothing but a guide and doesn’t mean as much to you as your family, but let’s see what we can do before we have to resort to bloodshed.”
“It doesn’t matter what you do to me. I’m never giving you what you want.”
He hit her dead center in the solar plexus, and she buckled over, gasping for air and fighting the pain expanding to her limbs.
The door opened, and two men entered with a barrel, water sloshed over the side. Water. This was what the first round was going to consist of—drowning.
Neve told herself not to be afraid. Not to give an inch. Even if she had the information, he would never get those addresses. She would keep her family safe as she’d vowed she would do when she came out here to eliminate the threat.
And the most important thing was...Rock was still out there.
He forced her to stand, holding tight to her manacled hands, then shoved her to the ground. She rolled to her side, and he moved around to the front of the barrel. He motioned for one of the guards to pro
ceed, and he grabbed her by the hair.
“The addresses.”
“Go to hell.” She started breathing deeper, taking in oxygen for the plunge. Set had no idea who he was dealing with when it came to water. Neve loved it, and it was her office. This would be nothing compared to thirty-foot waves.
Lifting her off the ground, he shoved her face-first into the water, but she’d already prepared herself. He held her down hard, the edge of the barrel cutting into her stomach. After a minute, she barely felt the effects. After thirty more seconds, her heartbeat started to resonate in her ears. It was all she could hear beyond the strain to hold her breath. Her lungs grew tighter by the millisecond, and she desperately wanted to exhale. She let out more air through her nose—she had to—and when she didn’t have any more, couldn’t hold it in, she faced her death. Just when she started to relax, she was yanked back.
Neve drew in a long harsh pull of air, coughing. She’d barely cleared a lungful when the guard pushed her back under again. He repeated the torture, just long enough to fill her lungs less and less each time. The question was always the same, and her answer was more breathless, but firm, until they were no more than words scattered in the air, random and angry. Then Ammon Set took over, holding her down longer. Neve felt her energy slipping with each plunge. Oxygen starved. She’d be brain dead before this was over. If she lived.
*
The first fingers of sunrise painted the bellies of the fat, cumulous clouds with pink and purple, the angle of early-morning light stretching the shadows and making the dew sparkle, the trees dripping with moisture. Facing the sunrise, Rock perched on a thick, sturdy branch, his shoulder propped against the trunk, his knees bent in a crouch. The only thing missing was a steaming cup of coffee cradled in his hands. It was not quite 5:00 a.m., but even after getting out of the marines, he was always up by then anyway. He attributed the success of Rockface to his early hours. It was his favorite time of day. He liked witnessing the sunrise, the beginning of a brand-new day. And he liked that particular stillness that came with early morning. But most of all, he liked soaking up that quiet as he watched the sun rise over the bay on the east side of the house.
But here in the Darién it was far from quiet, with the monkeys and the birds, a cacophony of sound he now had grown accustomed to and didn’t register.
He knew where they were keeping her, and he’d found a vulnerability he could exploit. He was currently watching the fortress, and he’d pinpointed the jail. Ammon Set had gone in and, a few hours later, he’d left. Rock was vibrating inside thinking about what the bastard must be doing to her. He wanted to take the man apart, but storming in there now would be suicide and wouldn’t help Neve.
Hold on, babe. I’m coming for you.
He would wait until nightfall, and then he was busting her out of there. As he watched, he saw the furtive movements of a boy, and the kid looked familiar. Wait...was that Opal’s brother? And if it was, what was he up to?
He watched the kid for another thirty seconds and smiled softly. Oh, he had a plan, and he was putting on this show solely for his benefit. “I got you, kid,” Rock whispered from his position in the trees. Set’s troops had moved below him several times, never thinking to look up. He’d eliminated a couple of patrols. They were sending out fewer.
Rock grinned. He was in his playground, and he wasn’t about to give up any of his toys.
If any of them came into his kill zone, he wasn’t going to hesitate to gain the odds in his favor.
A thick feeling unfolded in his chest, and he tried to push away the frustration of waiting and watching. They were the very things that were going to make this a victory. He had to be patient. He locked his jaw and closed his eyes, a thousand feelings lumbering through his chest. Neve. His best friend’s sister. It was as if giving in to his need to get closer to her was eroding his old defenses.
He couldn’t.
As if under enormous pressure, his heart felt suddenly too big for his chest. Closing his eyes, he swallowed hard and tightened his hands around the binoculars, years of rigidly suppressed feelings boiling up inside him. The memory of having her in his arms—with her entire body pressed against his—was almost more than he could handle, and he remembered every contour, every dip, every gorgeous curve. Christ, it was as if a dam had broken loose in him, and every single feeling he’d ever had for her came raging out. He’d known that giving in to this impulse would be the worst mistake he’d ever made, and he’d also known he was going to pay dearly for it. There was no way, not after experiencing the feel of her body molded against his, that he would ever be able to beat down all those long-denied feelings. Never in a million years. She was such a miracle. And he loved her. With absolutely everything in him. He knew he had no business feeling that way, but he did.
I’m so sorry, Tristan, for crossing the line with her...with you.
But nothing—nothing—was ever going to change that, not even his shame. His throat tight and his eyes burning, he clenched his jaw.
If he could, he’d take her right inside him and keep her there forever. She was everything to him. Absolutely everything. As if unloading some terrible stored-up pain, he gritted his teeth and endured.
Hold on, babe. I’m coming for you.
*
He was coming for her. There was no doubt in her mind.
He would never leave her here to die.
Never.
Neve had to endure two more rounds of near drowning and several blows to her face. Her eye was swelling, and her cheek and jaw were bruised and throbbing. Set was getting impatient after the last round as night was descending. He’d shoved her so hard into her cell, she’d fallen and scraped the heels of her hands to break her fall. She lay there for a few minutes while Opal cried softly, calling out to her, asking her if she was all right.
Neve gathered her strength and pushed up to her stinging hands and knees, then dragged herself over to the bars that separated them. Reaching through, she wrapped her arms around the distraught girl and held her close, her fearful and sympathetic sobs tearing at Neve’s heart.
“It’s all right, Opal. Your brother is coming for us. Rock is coming for us. We’ll get out of this.”
She prayed she was right.
About thirty minutes later, a guard came into the jail and shoved two plates and two bottles of water under the doors to their cells. Crawling forward, her lungs and throat raw, her neck and shoulders sore, a strip of her stomach bruised from being held under, Neve grabbed the plate and ate everything, downing the water. She was going to need the strength to run. Once Rock got them out, that would only be the beginning.
Opal leaned her head against the side of the cell. “He is out for revenge against you, and he won’t stop. But my brother did nothing. Our village minded our own business. We just wanted to live peacefully.”
Neve nodded. “I was doing my job.”
“Sounds like you did everything in your power to save those people. It’s a tragedy that they died, but you don’t deserve this kind of treatment. This isn’t your fault.”
A knot untied in her, loosening up the bonds she had used to bind herself to the guilt burning in her. Out of the mouth of babes. This journey, getting closer to Rock, understanding what true teamwork was—it all made her realize that Opal was probably right. She couldn’t quite believe that she was blameless, but the storm had hampered her ability to carry out her job. True, she had let her bias influence her, but it was more out of eagerness to save those people than it was out of proving herself. In the future, she would put the people she rescued first and foremost without factoring in how each rescue affected her. She would work harder to connect and support her team members as they did the same for her. Without that kind of connection and commitment, what was the point? She might as well swim alone.
And now, she didn’t want to go it alone anymore.
In her professional or personal life.
But the stark reality was that she couldn’t rec
oncile herself to staying put in San Diego and giving up her chance to see her new vows fulfilled. She had an obligation to the coast guard, to her country and to herself to see her duty through.
Regardless of how it would break her heart.
She was half asleep when José came into the jail so quietly she didn’t hear him. One minute the front of the cell was empty, the next he was there.
“Opal,” he whispered. They both rose and he put his hand up, then pulled out a squeeze bottle. He squirted what looked like cooking oil on the hinges and the door lock. Then he moved to Neve’s cell. He waited a few more minutes and twisted the key in the lock. It made a soft snicking sound, and the door swung inward on a quiet hiss of air.
The siblings wrapped their arms around each other for just a moment, and tears pressed at the back of Neve’s eyes. The minute she was able, she was going to see Nova.
She took the keys from him while he went to stand guard and unlocked her cell. But as they went to head down the hallway, José rushed into the room. “Someone is coming,” he hissed.
He picked up a piece of a table leg on the ground and stood at the ready, his face ferocious with his resolve.
The man moved silently and swiftly. As José swung, a hand came out and halted the wood from impact. He stepped into the light, and Neve sagged in relief.
“Thank God,” she whispered.
Before she was even aware of moving, she was in his arms. Unable to speak, she sobbed his name against his neck. She heard Opal quickly introduce Rock to her brother and felt him nod as he held her tightly to him. When they parted, his eyes ignited with murderous rage as he surveyed her face. “Son of a bitch,” he said vehemently beneath his breath. “He’s a dead man.”
The solemn expression in his eyes altered, changing to a heart-stopping look that made Neve’s heart roll over. “Babe,” he said, his tone husky. “I came for you.” He brushed back a wisp of hair, his touch soft and sensual.
“Took you long enough,” she groused.