by Jade Dean
Trevor Watts had recruited Ryan into the secret branch and had convinced him that his skills would be an invaluable asset to their country. He’d been an Army Ranger for four years before he’d joined the agency. He’d been married to Miranda for two years by then. He’d allowed himself to be seduced by the substantial pay increase because he and his wife had been thinking of starting a family. In the nine years that he’d worked for the SOB, Miranda had tried to conceive and hadn’t been successful. His job took him away far too often and he’d already been planning on quitting and finding another line of work that would enable him to stay close to home when Diego Montoya had killed his dreams.
With Miranda’s death, Ryan believed that he’d never find happiness again. Abby had been a surprise that he’d never seen coming. He hadn’t wanted to fall in love a second time, for fear of losing his partner again. Abby was more than capable of taking care of herself, but that wasn’t really the point. He’d already gotten her embroiled in his troubles once. He almost wished they’d never been forced together in the first place because here he was dragging her into his woes again.
Abby had only spoken about her time as a Black Squad operative once, but he knew she’d become disenchanted with being paid to kill. She didn’t want any more blood on her hands and he had the distinct feeling that she would soon be bathed in it.
He remembered her reaction to killing the bandito that had tried to rape her. She’d asked him to put his hands on her to replace the memory. Abby was a strong woman, but everyone had their breaking point. If she came after him and killed her way through numerous outlaws to rescue him, would her mind survive it or would she be pushed over the edge?
When the jet finally landed, he was hauled to his feet by two of the men and was bundled down the stairs and into a vehicle. Again, he was tossed to the floor. A pair of boots came to rest on his back, pinning him down and grinding into his ribs painfully.
During the lengthy drive to wherever their final destination was, he had plenty of time to ponder on exactly how Montoya had tracked him down to the small town near the lake house. No one else had known about the property, apart from him and Abby and he didn’t believe for a moment that she’d betrayed him. So how had Diego found him? It was a puzzle that he hoped he would be able to solve once he escaped from his current predicament.
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Chapter Four
Following one of the guards, Abby did her best to ignore the other men who had their weapons trained on her. They were so highly strung that if she sneezed they’d probably blow her face off. They walked down identical corridors and past doors that held numbers but no other identifying marks. The place was like a rabbit warren and even she was having a difficult time remembering their path.
At last, they came to a door at the end of a hallway. One of the guards opened it and she was escorted inside. A large oval conference table took up half of the room. Stained dark brown, the surface was smooth and shiny. She could see her reflection in the table top when she was directed to sit at the chair at the far end.
The seat was plush and the black leather still smelled new. A dozen other chairs were arrayed around the table. Two men sat at the opposite end from her. She’d met them once before under less than pleasant circumstances.
Trevor Watts stared at her curiously. He gave no indication that he knew why she was there. Aaron Swift sat to the left of his boss. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a shiny silver gun and placed it on top of the table, pointed directly at her. Ryan had stolen his previous weapon and it looked like the agent had upgraded.
With her sitting thirty feet away, the two men felt safe enough for Trevor to wave the guards out to give them some privacy. When they were gone, he turned to her and smiled cautiously. “I did not expect to see you again quite so soon, Ms. Parker.”
After only a few seconds of staring into his cunning green eyes, she knew that he wasn’t behind Ryan’s disappearance. Turning her attention to Swift, she noted his nervous fidgeting as he straightened his tie unnecessarily. He avoided both hers and Trevor’s gazes and suspicion bloomed inside her. She had a healthy dose of intuition and knew that he’d had something to do with the snatch and grab. “Where is Ryan?” she asked him.
Jerking slightly at the implied accusation, he stared down his narrow nose at her. “If we knew that, he’d be in our custody right now,” he said tightly. In his mid to late thirties, Swift had the soft physique of an office worker rather than the honed body of a field agent. He had brown hair, gray eyes that were several shades lighter than hers and a face that was so ordinary that he could easily blend into a crowd and be instantly forgotten.
“You know very well that he is already in someone else’s custody.” Her tone was cold and Trevor frowned.
“What are you talking about, Ms. Parker?” Somewhere around sixty, by her guess, his receding hair was white and he wore a dark gray suit. He was in better shape than his lackey, which meant he’d most likely been active in the field himself in the past.
“Ryan was kidnapped earlier today. He was taken somewhere by a private jet.” Pointing at Swift, she caught his minute flinch. “He knows who took him.”
Trevor had seen the flinch from the corner of his eye and turned to his subordinate. “Do you know anything about this, Aaron?”
Giving a fake incredulous laugh, Aaron shook his head. “How could I know anything about Sheldon being kidnapped?”
“You sold him out,” Abby realized. “You have some kind of connection to Diego Montoya and you gave Ryan to him.”
“That is a ridiculous accusation,” Swift said and snatched up the gun. “You’re going into one of our cells and you’ll never see the light of day again.”
Trevor stood and stared at his agent as if he’d never seen him before. “Need I remind you that I am in charge here, Agent Swift?”
Not daring to take his gaze off Abby, Swift stood as well. “Are you telling me that you believe her story?” he sneered.
Seeing the beads of sweat gathering on his subordinate’s forehead, Trevor reached his decision and signaled to the guard that was watching through the window. “Take Agent Swift into custody,” he ordered when the guard opened the door.
Debating about his chances of gunning Abigail down before the guards could stop him, Aaron’s finger squeezed down on the trigger. Trevor shoved him as he fired, making him stumble and ruining his aim.
Abby threw herself sideways and heard the bullet whizz past her ear and slap into the leather chair. A few strands of her hair were displaced as the chair hit the floor, but she was unharmed. Trevor’s intervention might or might not have saved her life, but she appreciated the gesture anyway.
Four more guards came running when they heard the shot. Swift was disarmed, handcuffed and dragged out into the hall. “You’re making a grave mistake, Trevor,” he said over his shoulder before the door closed behind him. His tone was supposed to be ominous, but he’d just sounded scared to Abby.
Watts sank tiredly down onto his chair. “How did you know Aaron was involved in Ryan’s kidnapping?” he asked.
“I can generally tell when people are lying,” she replied with a shrug as she righted the chair and took her seat again.
“I see.” Brooding for a moment, he stood and walked the length of the table. Taking the chair to her right, he leaned in and spoke quietly. “Can I trust you?”
Abby came close to snorting out a laugh, but held it in. She was an instrument of death, of course she couldn’t be trusted. “You can trust me when it comes to Ryan.”
He accepted her at her word. “I suspect that my agency has had a mole for over two years now. Some of our operations would suddenly go awry at the last moment and our targets would escape from our traps.”
“Targets such as Diego Montoya?” Abby asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes. We were this close to having him in our custody.” He held his finger and thumb a millimeter apart. “But backup arrived and saved him befor
e he could be brought to justice.”
“Then Montoya sent his hired goons after your daughter and your agents’ families,” she said quietly. “Ryan told me about what happened to his wife and to Elizabeth.”
A shadow of pain flickered across his face. “Miranda was killed and my daughter was irreparably damaged both physically and mentally.” His eyes met hers and she saw the rage that he’d held at bay for the past two years. “Ryan is like a son to me. I never meant for you or him to come to any harm. Aaron overstepped his authority when he ordered your death. You reacted before I could rescind his order.”
Reading the truth in his face and remembering his shout of denial when his subordinate had commanded his lackey to shoot her, she nodded. “Why did you order Ryan to be brought to you?”
Running a hand through his hair, he sat back in his chair. “I’d hoped to convince him to come back to work for me. He was the best agent that I’ve ever had on my staff.”
“Better than Swift?” she asked with a derisive smile.
Nodding, he made a dismissive gesture. “Aaron is more of a bureaucrat than a field agent. He doesn’t possess the training or the skills to run a successful operation.” He was also out of shape and lacked hand to hand training.
“Maybe that’s why he hates Ryan so much,” she mused.
Startled, Trevor thought back over the past nine years. He’d made no secret of his admiration for Ryan’s skills as an agent. Had Aaron become a double agent out of simple jealousy? If Aaron really was the mole, then he had a lot to answer for. Trevor mentally signed the death warrant for his subordinate. “We need to find out where Ryan was taken.”
“I’d like to know how he tracked us down,” Abby said as Watts stood. “If you give me a few minutes alone with Swift, I’ll find out everything we need to know. You’d better have him taken to a cell that can be hosed down,” she added as an afterthought.
Trevor hid his instinctive shiver at her request and at her innate confidence that she could make his agent talk. He didn’t usually condone torture, but the memory of Elizabeth’s scarred body and mind decided the issue for him. “What tools do you need?” He kept his tone brisk to mask his horror of what they were about to do. Or of what Abby was about to do. He knew he didn’t have the stomach to strip the flesh from one of his own employees. Not even one that had betrayed him for the past two years.
“I just need my weapons back. They’re all the persuasion that I’ll need.” She wasn’t looking forward to the task ahead, but it was necessary if she wanted to save her lover. Abby thought that she’d put this life behind her forever, but she would trade her chance of living a normal life in a heartbeat if it meant that Ryan would be safe again.
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Chapter Five
Ryan smelled the familiar earthy scent of the jungle when the vehicle finally stopped and he was dragged out through the door. It seeped through the cloth of the bag over his head and filled him with dread. He wasn’t a coward, but no one could face certain torture without a certain amount of trepidation.
Two of the men half-carried him across uneven ground and onto a path. He felt the weight of unseen eyes watching him as he was taken inside a building. It was hard to judge how many adversaries stood between him and freedom, but he’d heard several different voices.
The two hired men breathed heavily as they lugged his solid weight between them. The plastic ties around his ankles made it impossible to walk and his toes scuffed the ground as they carried him down a short hallway and came to a stop. A door was opened and he was unceremoniously dumped on the cold, cement floor. A knee came down on the middle of his back then his ankles were cut free and the handcuffs were removed from his wrists. The knee left his back and the door clanged shut with a metallic ring before he could force his limbs to move.
Ryan’s arms had been restrained behind his back for so long now that he couldn’t move them at first. His tortured muscles finally obeyed him and he bit back a groan of pain as the blood began to rush back to his hands. Pins and needles bit into his flesh.
Moving slowly and shakily, Ryan pulled the hood off and sat up. His cell was small and contained only a cot, a toilet and a tiny basin. Crawling the few yards to the bed, he hauled himself to his feet and tottered over to the toilet. He’d needed to urinate for hours and only his years of training had enabled him to hold it in.
With his bodily needs out of the way, he used the rusty sink to wash his hands then took stock of himself. Apart from being electrocuted and bruised in a few places, he was unharmed. He still had his knife, which led him to believe that his kidnappers weren’t very well trained. Trained or not, they’d taken him with relative ease and had brought him back to Brazil. He couldn’t hear the sounds of traffic nearby, but he assumed he’d been taken to Diego Montoya’s secret mansion that was rumored to be on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
The cot springs were rusty and saggy and the bed lacked a mattress. It would be highly uncomfortable to sleep on, but it would be better than lying on the floor. The small window above the bed drew his attention. He walked over to it and wiped the filthy glass clean with his palm. Night had fallen long ago and he couldn’t make out anything on the other side, apart from the thick bars that held him prisoner.
Performing a slow circuit of the room, he tested the walls and found them to be made of solid concrete. The cell was reminiscent of the bedroom that he’d occupied as a bandito team leader. It was much smaller than his previous dwelling, but it was just as secure. Unless he could get his hands on the key or a lock pick, he wasn’t going anywhere. He couldn’t even get the jump on the next person to enter the cell. A barred window gave anyone on the outside a view of the entire small room.
With little else to do, Ryan lay down on the bed and laced his hands across his stomach. He wondered where Abby was and what she was planning. While he hoped she would come for him, some part of him wished that she wouldn’t. She’d already faced enough death in her life and he didn’t want her to be subjected to more of it just to save his ass. After some of the things that he’d done in search of revenge for Miranda’s murder, he wasn’t even sure that he deserved to be saved.
₪₪₪
Chapter Six
Walking down the hallway towards the cell where Agent Swift had been taken, Abby stopped short of the door and turned to Trevor. “I need to know how far I can go to get the information I need,” she said in a low voice. A guard stood at the door and glanced at them curiously.
Trevor was still reeling from finally learning identity of the mole that had been secreted within his agency. He’d never suspected his right hand man of being the culprit. It occurred to him that Aaron had handed Elizabeth over to be raped by several of Montoya’s men. That betrayal was impossible for him to forgive and he lost the ability to care what happened to his former agent. “Go as far as you need to,” he said in a harsh whisper.
“If you can’t handle it, stay outside,” Abby told the man. “This isn’t going to be pretty.” She doubted Watts had ever participated in torture before or had witnessed a man being broken down and reduced to a quivering mess. He surprised her by straightening up and staring her in the eye.
“It wasn’t pretty seeing my daughter attempt to take her own life,” he replied then steeled himself and opened the door.
Aaron sat with his back to them. He’d been secured to a metal chair in the middle of the room. As requested, he’d been taken to a cell that could be easily cleaned. The walls and floor were made of stainless steel and a drain in the floor beside the chair would carry away all traces of bodily fluids that were about to be shed.
Anyone would have been terrified at being brought here and Swift was no exception. Hearing the door open, he turned a pleading gaze on his boss as the pair rounded the chair to stand in front of him. “I don’t know what lies she’s been filling your head with, Trevor, but you can’t believe anything she says!”
“You’re the one who has been lying,” Trevor respond
ed. “The fabrications end now. Tell Abigail everything she wants to know and I’ll make sure she won’t hurt you any more than is necessary.”
Sneering at the female agent that he still knew practically nothing about, Swift tried to stare her down and failed. “You’ll get nothing out of me.” Her gaze was unflinching and a sick feeling twisted his stomach.
“Do you really think so?” Abby asked almost pleasantly then pulled one of her knives. She’d taken the time to slip them back into place after her gear had been returned a few minutes ago. This one had come from a sheath on her left calf. “I guess now would be a good time to tell you who I used to work for. You might find you’ll change your mind about not wanting to answer my questions.”
Eyeing the shiny blade nervously, Aaron felt sweat trickle down his back and pool at the base of his spine. It was a cold sweat and he knew he was in serious trouble. “I don’t care who you worked for. Most of your job was probably spent on your back or on your knees anyway.”
“My boss ordered me to do many things for my country,” she mused, “but having sex with my targets wasn’t one of them. My main job was to infiltrate, subdue and either extract or eliminate my marks. I was particularly good at gathering information. Some might say that I had a gift for making people talk.”
She smiled at the memory that he didn’t want to hear about and Aaron’s heart lurched in fear. Staring into her dark, smoky eyes, he almost felt as if he was being hypnotized by her. “Ooh, I’m so scared,” he mocked nervously. “I suppose you worked for the CIA.” He had a feeling she’d worked for an organization much more secret than that.