by Angel Payne
Luck was their lady one more time. Kell started working in earnest at the rusty nails, not having to worry about any wayward sounds from his efforts due to an argument that flared between Stock and Tan.
“Has anyone checked the entrance lately?” Stock’s initial bark seemed directed at his men. “What the fuck am I paying you cum stains for? Everyone afraid they’ll get their pretty boots all dirty?”
“Don’t stress, Cam.” The reply came from that voice. Tait strained to listen harder but when mystery man finished, he’d paced at least ten feet down the tunnel. “I’m on it.”
“Thanks, man.” Stock still sounded more stressed than grateful. He trundled back toward the area where Tan seemed to be positioned. “Okay, where the hell were we? Oh, yeah. You were going to tell me why you’re being so goddamn intractable.”
Tan erupted in a fierce snarl to preface his comeback. “Big and impressive words, Cameron, but they don’t accomplish a bloody thing.” He unfurled a dark growl. “I am awash in disappointment by the turn of all these events, and by you in particular this evening. Less than twenty-four hours ago, you met me here and supported my approach. Now, you don’t have half the water for it.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my goddamn ‘water,’ you Korean kook. Glare in the mirror if you’re calling anyone’s nerve into question. This crazy cluster—”
“Would not even be a ‘cluster’ had you and Gunter done your jobs. Tonight, the man has become a feast for the sharks as his payment for the mess. But you’ve been valuable to me in the past, and I’d like to benefit from your special gifts in the future, as well.”
“Then take the benefit of my advice now, goddamnit. This bitch’s stubborn streak is longer than her hair. You can beat her and fuck her six ways until Sunday, but all that’ll get you is a couple of wasted hours. She’s not going to sign until you let me use my contacts at the base to grab that guppy brother of hers. Once you bring him back here, cut off a few of his fingers and threaten to do the same to his balls. I guarantee she’ll sign anything you want, including her own suicide note. How’s that for my boiling water, buddy?”
Kellan finally popped the nails from the board. On his nod, Tait helped him lift the wood out, securing them a window that measured about three feet long by six inches wide—just in time for them to witness what Stock’s threat did to Lani’s face.
And to flood Tait’s soul with the lust to kill the man for it.
They could only see her eyes and nose due to the duct tape wrapped around her head and across her mouth, but that was enough to know that their girl was past terrified. She shivered from head to toe despite being sandwiched between two burly guards who held her by the elbows, probably the same assholes who’d stripped her to nothing but her black bra and panties. Her wrists were bound together in an expert bondage shackle, and her ankles were encased in leather cuffs with O rings. It didn’t take a big leap of imagination for Tait to construe why.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
In an instant, all the threats he’d promised for her ass were wiped from his mind. For all her fire and fanfare, Lani possessed one of the most pure and open souls he knew. She had no concept about the wickedness that thrived in the world, in the form of vermin like Stock. It tore at Tait’s spirit to watch her get a hideous dose of that lesson now, demonstrated in her horror-filled eyes and flaring, frantic nostrils. One glance at Kell confirmed he sailed in the same boat of dread.
Tan paced back into their line of vision. His face looked gaunt, thinned by anger and waning patience. “Tell me, then. How long will it take to activate these ‘contacts’ of yours at the base?”
Stock stepped forward, too. “A couple of hours at most.” His hands were clasped like a priest about to hear confession or a waiter attending a wine order. Either way, the pose added to the weirdness of the evil being conspired below. Tait scowled at Kellan, who nodded his agreement. They’d wisely kept Leo back against the wall and planned on keeping things that way until they determined what their plan would be from here.
“I see,” Tan returned. His own hands rested in the pockets of his ivory suit, which remained pristine despite the grungy surroundings. Maybe the man had signed a pact with the devil. “And in those two hours, you don’t think that her two soldier friends will have gotten half a clue about what’s going on? You believe the two idiots will just invite your mates in for a beer before they snatch up Leo for the road?”
Stock rocked from foot to foot, clearly conceding the point to Tan. As he did, Tait looked again to Kellan. His buddy’s face reflected the dark concern creeping through his own veins. The slur didn’t matter. They’d been called worse than idiots before, and being underestimated was actually a favor. But they also could have used the extra two hours that Stock’s plan would have afforded. Now they’d be lucky to get two minutes.
If Tan’s will prevailed, it would be even less. The man left their angle of vision for a long moment. When he walked back into view, he carried a bullwhip at least five feet long. In serene silence, he let the leather unfurl. With even more grace, he brought the handle back, and let the leather fly with a fluid coordination of his elbow and wrist. The popper smacked the air directly over Lani’s head, causing even her two henchmen to flinch. Lani’s eyes widened. A violent quiver claimed her whole body.
Tait swallowed hard as nausea seared his stomach once more. Had he been witnessing a Dom in the Bastille dungeon back at home he would have labeled Tan’s expertise a thing of beauty, but in the cavern below, the monster provided proof of how easily Dominance could be perverted into abuse. Once more, Tan drew back the whip. When the leather dropped this time, it took a sharp nick at Lani’s waist. Her scream pushed at the duct tape and she started breathing harder.
“As you can tell, Miss Kail, I’m a bit of an enthusiast when it comes to beautifully-made long tails…and the ways I can paint a woman’s skin with them.” Tan glided his fingers down the braided leather as he strolled over to personally inspect his handiwork. He ran a thumb across the bloom of blood he’d induced then sucked the stuff off with a sigh of pleasure. As Lani sagged like she was going to be sick, the man added, “But I am also a fair man, darling. Sign the papers now, turning over all of Hale Anelas to Benstock as a free-and-clear gift from your generous heart, and this single stroke will be the only kiss you get from my kangaroo hide. It would sadden me to give up the pleasure of playing with you tonight, but I’ve been assured my hunger will be sated with other willing ladies on the island. As they say, the choice rests in your hands.”
It was torment to watch Lani’s reaction but Tait forced himself to the task, hoping she could feel his gaze, his support, and his longing to tear up these boards then leap on Tan with his knife at the ready. The misery on her face tore him apart. The tears pouring from her closed eyes were like silver prayers before a death she’d clearly resigned herself to. Why would she think otherwise? Tan intended on killing her, no matter what. He’d simply let her decide whether he whipped and raped her first. She’d escape the torment of the assault by accepting the agony of signing over her home.
“Damn it, dreamgirl.” His whisper came from the depths of his soul. “Don’t give up!”
Thank every one of her gods, she somehow found that fortitude. He and Kellan watched, grins growing, as she suddenly straightened her spine and jerked from the hold of the guard to her right. In the seconds it took the guy to realize what she’d done, she rammed her bound hands up into Tan’s nose. The two grunts she issued with it were delivered with the emphasis unique to only one insult.
“No, darling,” Tan returned with a bitter laugh, “fuck you—which is what I’ll be very happy to do, once I’ve taken a few layers of skin off your pretty body.”
During the exchange, Tait felt Leo moving closer to their peephole. Though it ravaged his heart to let the kid stay, it would be even more wrong to shove him back like some five year-old. Kellan didn’t object, either, though the guy had to smash a hand over Leo’s mouth when t
he teen went ballistic at Tan’s declaration. Kell gripped the back of the kid’s neck, forcing Leo to stay locked to his dictatorial stare. He mouthed two words. Not helping.
“Strip her,” Tan ordered his guards below. “Then secure her to the post. There’s a spreader bar on the table; clip her ankles onto that. Make sure it’s pinned at the widest setting.”
Leo’s chest pumped in furious heaves. He flung Kell’s hand away and zapped a glare of silver rage at them both. “How much longer are we going to sit here?” His whisper was harsh. “He’s going to peel off her skin with that thing! And then screw her like a whore!”
Tait jabbed a finger toward the main part of the kitchen, wordlessly ordering Leo and Kell to follow him there. They had a half-wall and the refrigerator helping to muffle their exchange from Tan.
“Leo, we copy you on the concern, but—”
“But what?” the kid seethed. “We’re standing around with our dicks in our hands while Lani—”
In one sweep, Kell pinned the teen to the refrigerator. “Take a chill, Simba. We know the goddamn circumstances. But in case you weren’t looking, the man has an army of guard apes. We charge in there with nothing but our battle cries and Bowie knives, you’ll end up watching your sister get tortured and killed on the mound of our carcasses.”
Tait stepped over, giving Kellan a let-me-give-it-a-try look. “You remember the day we first met?” he challenged Leo. “And the issues you were having with Isis? You remember how we worked together, did it smarter instead of harder?”
Leo mashed together his lips but finally returned, “Fine. So do you guys have anything ‘smarter, not harder’ in mind?”
Tait looked to Kell. The guy’s face was stone but he wasn’t capable of hiding the anguish in his eyes as Lani’s panicked cries filtered up to them. Things were going to get worse, in a very fast way, if they didn’t do something soon.
As in right now.
Shit. Karma had a sick sense of humor. He was asking Kell to totally separate head and heart, a task he’d totally screwed the pooch on in Indonesia. But now the stakes were higher. Lani’s life was on the line. He prayed that his friend could reach deeper inside than he’d been capable of during the failure in Indonesia. Become my hero now, Slash—and hers. I swear to you that I’m here a hundred percent this time, too.
Thank fuck. The universe was listening this time, and so was Kell’s spirit. Between one blink and the next, the guy narrowed his gaze, squared his jaw, and turned into Tait’s mission-centric buddy again. “The Remington’s still in the trunk of the rental car,” he stated in a bullet-hard tone. Tait was a little surprised Kell hadn’t called the rifle by its nickname, “sweet baby.” The guy had worked so extensively with the weapon, he could shoot a flea off a dog from a thousand yards away. “All we need to do is flush the bastard out of the tunnels,” Kellan supplied. “If he hits the beach where we were last night, I’ll have no trouble picking him up on my night scope.”
“You can stage up on the cliff,” Leo interjected. “Yeah. It’d give you perfect height and invisibility.”
Tait turned with a fast glance of appraisal. The kid’s aspirations to West Point didn’t sound so cray-cray anymore.
“But getting him out is still the boner killer.” Kell frowned. “As much as I love Lani for leaving enough fire power to turn this place into a mile-wide kill zone, the goal here is to save her, not seal her in with those asstards.”
“I can help with that one.” Leo was still a glowing isotope of impatience, but now his energy had direction. “We have a compost bin off the back lanai. After all the rain we’ve had lately, everything in there is going to be really damp. Light that shit on fire, and we’ve got instant smoke.”
“Instant putrid smoke,” Tait elaborated.
“Excellent,” Kell concluded. “Make it happen, kid.”
Leo had bounded three steps across the kitchen before stopping in his tracks and throwing them a scowl. “What if that asshole flees but leaves Lani in the cave?”
Kellan, fully fortified in the steely shell of ops mindset, shook his head. “Not going to happen unless Tan’s a complete nimrod. He’ll know Lani’s his insurance policy out of the trap and use her as a human shield. But just in case the guy did eat paint chips for dinner, you’re going to stay here and serve as eyes and ears at this end.” He leveled a stern stare at the kid. “If any of those choads finds their way out through here, you kick the bin over, turn them into flaming compost casserole, then get your ass down to the barn and hide there until one of us comes for you. Got it?”
“Yeah.” The teen’s face lit up with a mix of excitement and anxiety. “Got it.”
“You sure? This isn’t normal procedure, but I need T-Bomb on that ridge with me, so we have to rely on you, Leo. If you dick around, your sister will have our gonads diced, pickled and put in a jar on display next to the kitchen fruit bowl.”
The kid’s face sobered. The consequence Kellan painted was closer to the truth than all three of them cared to admit. “I’m sure, Slash.” No “gasm” as an addendum this time. “You can count on me.”
“All right,” Tait ordered. “Let’s roll.”
Once they were outside, he told himself to shove Lani, and the first lashes she was likely getting from Tan, from his mind. It was harder than he thought. No, it was fucking impossible. Somewhere between moving the explosives outside, helping Leo haul in the compost bin, and assisting Kell with the rifle load-up, the realization hit. He was in love with Hokulani Kail as much as Kellan was.
And he may never have the chance to tell her.
Focus. You can’t afford not to, Bommer.
“Okay.” Now standing in the kitchen again, he handed over the fire starter to Leo. “Is your phone on voice radio mode?”
“Yes, sir,” the kid answered.
“There’s no time to brief you on all the shit you’re being called to keep track of, so use your common sense and your brain are going to be your best friends right now. Use this,” —he tapped the teen’s forehead, then his chest— “and not this. Got it?”
“Yeah.” Leo was admirably solemn. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Cool fries.”
He reached out to fist bump the kid. Leo didn’t meet the gesture. “Hey. Give one more thing to me straight-up.”
Tait nodded, also somber. “Sure.”
“If that scum sucker is using Lani as a shield, then Kellan has to be damn accurate with the kill shot, right?”
Tait clapped a hand on Leo’s shoulder again. “I’m his spotter. We do this all the time, Leo.” Well, they had been doing it all the time. They hadn’t succeeded at a challenge shot like this in well over a year. And the synchronicity they’d shared lately, burnished to perfection by their partnership in loving Lani, was in its best form ever. Had either of them expected to put it to the test this soon? In a situation like this? The answer was obvious. Of course not. But sometimes in life, especially their lives, there wasn’t a choice about being ready for the big test. You simply had to plow deep and find that readiness.
“I get that.” Leo clearly excavated his gut for his own courage. “But it’s two in the morning. And that beach is dark. Is—is Slash-gasm that good?”
Tait might have been unsure about how to answer the kid’s first question, but his reply now was a no-brainer. “Yeah, Leo. He’s that good.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lani’s eyes burned with tears. Her throat burned from screaming. Her ass and back burned with pain. Tan was only three strokes in to his promise of stripping the flesh off her body, one whip lash at a time, and she wondered how many more of his terrible grunts, followed by the whir of the leather and the fire on her flesh, would come before his goal was accomplished.
Something else burned now, too. Her lungs.
“What the fuck?” The guard standing nearest to her, who’d been enjoying Tan’s show with a prominent hard-on, pushed off the cave wall. Lani blinked at him, only to wonder what was going w
rong with her vision. Everything was covered in a weird gray haze that thickened by the second. “Christ almighty, what’s that stench?”
As if cued to do so, the rest of Tan’s henchmen began coughing and wheezing. Lani ducked her head, trying to take shallow breaths herself. It smelled like the cave had contracted the flu and now hurled on all of them. The camp lanterns looked like glowing chunks of puke as the guards grabbed them in desperate efforts to locate the source of the stench.
“I think it’s coming from above,” one of the men called. “Someone’s in the mansion, and they know damn well that we’re here!”
“Let me drill their ass with lead, Tan. This’ll be fun.”
“Idiot,” Tan snarled. “It will also be suicide. If you break the wrong supports to that kitchen, we’ll be buried down here.”
“Shit.”
“In a word, yes.” The man raised his voice into a shout. “Everyone out! Now!”
Lani couldn’t contain her reacting sob. She’d take the smoke and stench over Tan’s new proximity, less than a foot away from her. She flinched as he unfastened her ankles from the spreader. He made her worst nightmare come true by unhooking her wrists from the posts then yanking her back against him.
“Just a wild guess, darling, but I’d say your boyfriends want to join our little party.” His growl was low and menacing as he latched a possessive hand onto one of her bare breasts. “So let’s make sure their favorite guest makes an appearance.”
His brutal hold intensified her pain but she clung to a new hope. This twist had Tait and Kellan’s ingenuity written all over it. Had they truly bucked their orders from Franz? Were they really here? She could almost feel their presence on the air. Maybe if she set her mind free a little more and tried to hear an assurance from that cool wind of a voice again… Aue. Who the hell was she kidding? If Luna had returned, Lani couldn’t hear past the hammers of pain in her body, the heavy grunts of her captor, and the cavernous echoes of their steps through the long black tunnel.