“Great.” Whoever wanted her wanted to keep her bad. Her body sank down on the floor and she leaned against the wall. She willed her pain-stricken eyes to scan the room for anything she could use as a weapon. Besides the canopy bed and the dresser and chair, the room was otherwise bare.
She took a couple deep breaths and grabbed hold of the window molding to lift herself up. She cursed her dragging feet as she slowly made her way towards the chair next to the dresser. A loud sigh escaped from her lips when she sat down. Where were all the cars? She needed their energy desperately. When she caught her breath, she ripped open the small drawers and looked through the contents. Foundation, mascara, cotton balls, hair clips, brush,… everything to make her pretty but nothing to make her deadly. When she looked in the mirror, she nearly screamed before she realized she was looking at herself. If she was preparing for a role as a vampire she would have nailed it down.
The rattle of the doorknob broke her thoughts. She mustered all her strength and willed her legs to stand up as she held on to the back of the chair. There was no way she was going to face her captor sitting down.
With an obnoxious creak, the door opened and Marshall Foss slithered in with a smile on his face.
“Sweetheart, you’re awake! You still feel ill?” He gently closed the door behind him and walked towards her.
“M-marshall? What…” She felt relief but also was confused.
“Where am I?”
He stopped in the middle of the room and spun. “Sweetheart, you don’t remember? You were abducted and I rescued you and brought you here to recover. You’ve got everything here that you need, and I’m here to help you.”
“Where is my family? Where is my bodyguard?” Her knuckles started to turn white as she squeezed the top of the chair to calm the waves that formed in her stomach.
“Oh, love, you don’t need them. I’m here to take care of you. I love you.”
“Love me?” He loved her? There was nothing she said or ever did to make him think she felt the same. She had to let him down easy.
“Marshall, that is so sweet, but I don’t feel the same about you.” Her hands kept squeezing the chair. “If you do care about me, then you’ll take me back to my family.”
He slithered close to her and gently touched her cheek. “Oh, my sweet beauty, they don’t love you as much as I do.” He leaned closer towards her and whispered, “I’d kill for us to be together, my sweet. That is true love.”
Kill? A cold chill went through her body and she stepped away from him. This was not the man that she once called a friend. This was a psychopath she needed to get away from. The confusion she felt moments ago now erupted into rage. “Killing isn’t an act of love, Marshall. It’s a cry for psychiatric help!” Before she knew it, she had the chair she held a minute ago airborne and hit Marshall in the back, which stunned him enough for her to stumble to the door and bolt out into the hallway.
She found a staircase which led downstairs. The shaking of her legs caused her to stumble down the stairs to the bottom. Pain filled her whole body as she struggled to pull herself up again. She struggled to clear the fog from her eyes as she looked around for a door. She stumbled into a hallway, where she saw what looked like the main door. The exhaustion in her legs caused them to buckle under her, and her arm hit a table on the way down.
“Guards!” Marshall screamed from above.
NO! Get up! She told her body as pain entered in every form. We have to get out! She pushed herself against the wall when her legs failed to lift her. Two sets of strong hands lifted her up off the ground. There was no way she could fight off these two bodyguards.
“Let me go! Do you even know who I am?” she screamed at them as she tried to wiggle free from their grip.
“Where do you want her, Mr. Foss?” one of them asked.
“Bring her back upstairs,” he said with some irritation in his voice as he walked down the stairs.
As they dragged her up the stairs, Anne saw the irritation in Marshall’s face turn to concern when he saw her badly banged-up body.
“Darling, why did you do that? That’s not the way you treat your lover.”
“Lover!? You’re not my lover!” she spat back.
“Oh, of course I am. You must have hit your head when you fell down. Take her back upstairs to the bedroom.” His cold, clammy fingers caressed her face as he whispered, “You’ll learn to like me and you’ll realize what we have is truly love. Now, go on upstairs and take a nap. You look so tired. I’ll have the chef cook something up for you.”
The eerie calm in his voice caused goosebumps to form down her spine. With rough movements, the men brought her back to the room and threw her on the bed, then locked the door behind them.
The rose-plastered wallpaper on the ceiling started to become hazy as tears filled her eyes from both the pain and the despair. What the hell was Marshall planning for her? What did he do to her? Where was Hawk, and why didn’t she feel any other cars?
Panic filled her as she felt her body getting weaker by the minute. If she didn’t get close to a car soon she didn’t know what would happen. She’d never gone this long without their energy before. Would she slip into a coma? She might.
Dean will find me. At the thought of him, her heart leaped in joy. There was never a time in her life when she felt as vulnerable as she did right now. All the money and power she had wouldn’t help her at that point. The only hope she had was that Dean would find her.
Chapter 24
Keith’s white knuckles held onto the door handle as Dean swerved around another car. The storm that started turned into a near hurricane as the wind and the rain kicked up. Yet somehow they were making record time, breaking every single speed limit and miraculously not getting pulled over or even swerving off the road. The car hugged the corners and jumped past every slow car on the highway almost as if it knew that its owner was in trouble and wanted to get to her. Darkness started to fall on the road, and Keith wondered how much longer Dean would be able to swerve and miss the other cars on the road. The rain continued pounding down relentlessly. Whoever took Anne planned this out well and knew exactly when to hit to make sure help couldn’t get to her easily.
Keith saw his friend in many combat situations but never in such an emotional turmoil like this one, not since Alexandra. Keith still wished he could slap that bitch for screwing Dean over. A text came through and he picked up his phone to view the message.
Jeri wrote:
Kenneth sent a message to the police on the Island.
He knows the chief there.
They can’t get to the house because there's a big storm.
How long until you get there?
He smiled as he typed back. Should be there in an hour.
She responded instantly.
An hour? How fast are you going?
Keith typed back.
Dean’s driving and he’s pissed.
Jeri’s reply came up almost instantly.
That explains it. Just don’t get hurt.
We won’t. Dean’s too stubborn and I…
He stopped before he could write the words that he truly felt. He should be saying things like that to Jen, and yet when he did, she never responded or didn’t seem to care.
We won’t. We were trained for this. He retyped and sent to her.
Good. I’ll be waiting here.
As he put the phone down, he turned towards the road ahead of them. He didn’t want to think of Jeri in any romantic way since he was with Jen, but it seemed like the more and more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to be with her.
“Was that Jeri?”
Keith stared out into the darkness he could see the reflection of the headlights hitting nothing but the rain. “Yeah, Kenneth gave the Island PD a heads up, but with this storm they can’t get to the house. She’s hoping we get there soon.”
“We are. None of the cops here were trained to do what we did back in the Middle East.” He passed a miniv
an with a family full of rambunctious kids who made faces at them as they passed by.
Keith was in no mood to be some amusement for these kids. He flipped them off as they cut in front of them and sped away.
“Did you just flip off those kids?” Dean shook his head.
“Yeah, so?”
“They’re kids.”
“No, they’re brats that need to be taught a lesson.”
“I feel bad for your kids.”
Hawk swerved around another car and jumped again across the clear stretch of road before them.
“You don’t need to worry because Jen doesn’t want kids.”
Dean looked over at him. “What about you? What do you want?”
Jeri, his mind screamed as he turned his gaze towards the drenched road ahead of them. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“No, but you’re going to ask me anyway.”
“Damn straight. Why the hell are you with Jen? You’ve changed since you’ve been with her. The longer you are with her, the more miserable you are.” The road turned slightly and a few more houses started to pop up.
“How would you know, Miller? You haven’t been around that long.” Irritation laced his voice as his words hit a raw nerve.
“You’re right, I haven’t, but Jeri has. She’s worried about you, Keith.”
“Jeri deserves a man better than me.”
“Better then you?” Dean slowed down as a set of stoplights ahead turned red. “Keith, there is no man better for her than you.”
“I am not the man she needs, Dean. She needs someone who isn’t still fucked up mentally and physically.”
Hawk stopped at the stoplight. “Give her some credit, Keith. How long have you known her? Don’t you think she knows what your demons are? And if you’re worried about your missing foot, well, guess what? She knows about that, too. You have to look ahead instead of focusing on the past and what happened.”
As if on cue, the light turned green and Dean drove down and turned the corner. Keith thought about what Dean said and wondered if Jeri really could handle him and his demons.
A view of a lit-up bridge appeared in front of them through the curtain of water. Dean inhaled. “Anne’s there. I can still feel her.”
“Then let’s get over there and get her the hell out of that bastard’s hands,” Keith told him as Dean punched the gas and sped towards the bridge.
Chapter 25
Anne’s shaking had become uncontrollable. She bit down on her finger so she could concentrate on the pain instead of the constant nausea that gnawed at her.
Dean? Dean, where are you? she called out in her mind. Did she need to do something else to help him find her? Was she just too weak? Marshall’s maid left her a platter of food on the dresser, but the very thought of anything to eat just made her want to vomit. Her whole body ached and she had jelly for legs. How long would she stay conscious before her whole body fell apart on her?
The obnoxious creak of the door announced his presence again and anger filled her lungs.
“What do you want?” her strained voice echoed the room.
The edge of the bed sank and a hand touched her shoulder. “You still are not feeling well, dear?” his soft, sinister voice asked. “They must not have given you enough of the antidote. I’ll have Will give you another dose to help you feel better.”
The little bit of strength she had helped her pull her shoulder away from him. “I don’t want anything from you. I’d rather die!”
“Oh, darling, it pains me to hear you say that. I need you to be healthy so that you can give me such wonderfully-gifted children.”
Her heart stopped for a moment after he uttered those words. What the hell did he mean by that? “I’m not giving you anything.”
“You say that now, but you’ll change your mind.” The slow caress of his hand across her cheek just made her want to retch. “You see, Anne, I can make your life as well as the lives of those closest to you very, very miserable.”
Understanding dawned on her, making her feel suddenly very cold. “Did you hurt Missy?”
“Ah, your darling younger sister.” He stood up, walked around the bed and stood in front of her, asserting a sense of dominance over her. “The beauty that graces the covers of the most elite fashion magazines.” He waved his hands as he emphasized her grandiose life. “With the snap of a lens, her image coerces millions of people to open their wallets and buy whatever trinket or trash she was paid to sell.” He leaned over her trembling body and whispered, “Such a tragic thing that happened to her. I was very surprised that she didn’t have any gifts to help avoid that accident.”
The sight of his ice cold eyes made her clench her teeth. “You’re a monster.”
He laughed at her comment. “Me? What about you, my darling? What would the public say if they knew what you could do with cars?”
He knew! How did he know? Anne never told him.
“Yes, my dear. I know about your little gift. I noticed how your car starts up but you don’t have a remote starter and the way that it’s so pristine and perfect— not a scratch, dent or rust anywhere. And those stunt cars you race…” He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “The way you made them move so flawlessly, perfectly, like they were part of your body… you could not do that unless you have a special gift.”
“You’re crazy. You’ve been in Hollywood too long! I only play gifted characters in films. There are no real people with powers.”
That sinister grin never left his lips as he laid down behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her body closer to his. “Oh, you are so wrong, my dear. You see, there was an elite group of soldiers back during the war who volunteered to be part of an experiment to enhance them.”
Anne strained to laugh as she tried not to think about his erection against her lower back. “Didn’t that movie come out last year?”
“You can laugh my dear, but when I met you and began to watch you, I noticed that you were special. When I started doing some research, I found out about the top secret Orion project the government performed during World War II which gave enhanced abilities to the test subjects. Those seven test subjects disappeared, but I am convinced you are one of their descendants.”
Anne’s heart began to race. Orion project? Was he making this up just to get her to admit she had gifts? If this project really existed, then that would mean the Tensels and Dean and Jeri were also descendants. Anne wondered about this as Marshall kept up his monologue.
“That is why, my dear, you are going to give me children. Many, many children and they will all be as gifted as you.” he emphasized his point by pressing his erection against her lower back.
Anne didn't move. “And what good would that do?”
“Oh, my dear, you truly do not see? We would have power. No one would ever try to cross us.”
“Are you serious? There is no guarantee that your children will listen to you and follow your lead.”
Marshall moved a strand of hair away from her face and gently caressed her cheek. “They will listen. They will be trained to be obedient from birth just like you will be trained to obey me.”
A shiver went down her spine at those words. “I never will obey you, Marshall.”
His hand gently rubbed her cheek and then chin. “Oh, my dear, you will learn.”
The roar of thunder startled her and she tried to calm her startled heart. There had to be a way out, but how? In her current condition, she could barely stand let alone try to defend herself against him. Mentally, she reached out again for Hawk and found cold emptiness. Where did Marshall take her? Did he fly her out of the States? Where was she that there were no cars around? With the storm outside, she couldn’t even see outside of the window.
“Go to hell, Marshall!” she spat as she tried to roll out from his skin crawling embrace.
His fingers bit into her skin and she tried to stop herself from crying out. “The sooner you a
ccept your new life, the easier it will be for you and your family.” His kiss on her cheek made her cringe away from him. “I’ll be back later so we can get re-acquainted.” His arms released their hold on her as the bed sprung up from the release of his weight on it.
The squeak of the door let her finally release the breath she held. There had to be a way out of here or at least a way to get a message out to Dean. Her bruised body screamed as she rolled out of the bed. The breathing technique she learned in meditation class eased her nausea. As she sat on the floor rug, she leaned against the bed and looked around the room again. As weak as she was she was determined not to go down without a fight.
The question was how long would her body fight until she blacked out?
Dean? Hawk? Why can't I feel any machines?
A pit formed in her stomach as she laid down on the floor.
Chapter 26
Dean pulled up into a marina on the other side of the island. They both grabbed their bags from Hawk and ran through the downpour of rain to enter the marina.
“Keith! Dean! How are you?” a voice rang out from the back the moment they walked in. A young man in his 20s smiled and ran up to both of them.
“Tiny!” they both yelled at him as they gave each other bear hugs and slaps on the back. At 5’8”, Jason “Tiny” Tucker was the shortest member of their team but had the strength of the whole team combined. He was always the one who carried the biggest guns, crawled into the tightest spaces, and fired the largest rounds without getting caught or noticed. Despite his nickname ladies lined up outside his door to get a chance to view those hazel eyes and caress that well-built body.
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