by Maya Banks
echoed by her husband as well as Gavin Rochester.
“You have yourself one hell of a woman,” Gavin whispered to Isaac while still maintaining his tight hold on him to keep him from completely losing his shit.
Isaac just closed his eyes as tears leaked from the corners.
“Do what you want if it makes you feel more like a man,” Jenna said in a weary, pain-filled voice. “But remember this when someone shoots your ass off and you come wag it at me to heal it. I might decide to say ‘fuck you’ and let you die a long, slow, painful death.”
Isaac’s eyes shot open and went wide in shock. He’d never heard Jenna speak that way, but then he’d never really seen her angry, certainly not as furious as she appeared to be right now. He’d seen her confused by the world around her and desperately trying to take it all in. Maybe he’d even viewed her as weak and in need of constant protection, but in this moment, he was seeing a side of Jenna that made him so fucking proud that she was his yet at the same time worried out of his mind that she’d pay for every single one of her taunts.
Ramie was actually knocked from Caleb’s grasp and went sprawling on the floor several feet away, and Isaac growled, his fists swinging as he tried to hit something, anything.
“You won’t kill me, Jesus. You’re too chickenshit,” she taunted again, in a much weaker voice that scared the hell out of Isaac. How much more could she endure? “You need me, because the one thing you fear above all else is death. Your death. It’s why you went on this crazy pursuit for immortality and when you realized you were indeed as batshit crazy as everyone labeled you, then you settled for the next best thing. Some poor, naïve, easily manipulated girl who’d been abducted by a cult when she was four and spent the last twenty years as their prisoner. A woman who happened to possess the ability to heal. Did you think I would be grateful to you for taking me away from the cult?” she egged him on. “Did you imagine me falling at your feet, thanking you over and over and vowing to do your bidding forever in my gratitude? It seems to me you got one crappy bargain.”
“Shut up!” Jaysus screamed, his high-pitched voice sending chills up the spine of every person assembled. “I may not kill you, but by God, you’ll wish I had when I’m done with you.”
“For God’s sake, Caleb,” Isaac pleaded. “Do we have their location? Can we put an end to this?”
Caleb was faring no better and he shook his head. “God damn it, Ramie hasn’t said anything that identifies their location. We’ve gotten nothing from her at all! Only what she relays from Jenna and that goddamn son of a bitch who is abusing them both.”
Ramie flinched, but it didn’t appear that she, or rather Jenna, had been struck again. Instead, Ramie was suddenly dragged along the floor by invisible hands and made to sit upright against the wall.
“Why did you shoot him?” Jenna asked hysterically. “Are you insane? Why would you shoot one of your own men? Do you think the others are going to continue to give you such blind loyalty when they see that this is their reward? For God’s sake, let me heal him before it’s too late.”
“You aren’t to touch him,” Jesus said coldly. “You did this to him. You killed him, you stupid bitch. And now you get to sit there and watch him die when you could have saved him.”
“You’re out of your mind,” Jenna said, raising her voice, anger vibrating from Ramie’s entire body. “I didn’t kill this man. You shot him. And by not allowing me to do what you seemed so desperate to abduct me and have me do, his blood is on your hands. Not mine,” she spat. “Or do you only intend to keep my healing ability for yourself? I think you’ve sold your men a line of crap by making them feel invincible by telling them you have a miracle worker, that no matter what happens to them, I can fix them, but in reality, you don’t give a shit about them or if they die. You merely want the unwavering, unquestioning loyalty and the attitude of invincibility so they’ll carry out your commands, no matter that they’re as insane as you are.”
Ramie flinched again and then clapped her hands over her ears and began rocking back and forth, her eyes wide open, fixed and unblinking.
“Fuck,” Dane said, rubbing both hands over his face in supreme agitation. “Jesus fuck, he just shot someone else and he’s going to torture her by making her watch him die when he damn well knows she can heal him and it’s her nature to want to heal even when the person is undeserving. She doesn’t judge.”
“She doesn’t feel it’s her right,” Isaac said, sorrow heavy in his voice. “She believes her gift is from God, no matter that the cult leaders tried to make her rebuke that belief her entire life. They tried to brainwash her into believing she was Satan’s instrument and that only God decided life or death and that she was evil, her gift was evil. They even beat her until she spoke the words they wanted to hear, but they never broke her spirit or her belief that her gift was bestowed upon her by a merciful and loving God, and so she doesn’t feel she has a choice in whether she uses it or not, nor is she qualified to pass judgment on someone or deem them worthy or unworthy of being saved.”
“This isn’t good,” Wade muttered. “This isn’t good at all. He’s physically and psychologically torturing her, for fuck’s sake. We need a fucking location!”
“I hope someone shoots you,” Jenna said, devastation in her voice. “I vow on my life I won’t lift a single hand to save you. Kill me, torture me. I don’t care. I got what I wanted and you? You’re a monster who got nothing in the end but the promise of a very short life.”
“Oh no. No no no, Jenna!” Isaac bellowed. “Oh God, baby. Don’t give him any reason to believe you won’t heal him, god damn it!”
Once again, Ramie went flying across the floor, and spittle flew from her mouth as Jaysus’s words spilled out.
“Take that back!” he screamed. “Take it back or I swear I’ll make you pray for death with every breath.”
“This is fucking enough!” Isaac roared. “We need a goddamn location and we need it now!”
Caleb, no longer able to withstand watching the horror his wife was being subjected to, bent over her and immediately began the process of trying to bring her back as Isaac prayed with every part of his being that it had been enough. That Ramie had been in Jaysus’s mind long enough to be able to tell them where to find Jenna.
“Ramie, please, come back to me,” Caleb pleaded, as he alternately rocked and shook her in an effort to bring her back from the dark, evil place she seemed to be drowning in.
After five long minutes, Ramie gasped and jerked upright, her eyes clear and no longer lost in another time and place. She yanked her head around as if confused by her surroundings. Then she locked onto Isaac and frantically began begging him to hurry.
Isaac knelt by Ramie and eased his hand over hers, squeezing to give her as much comfort as he was capable of when he was eaten alive by grief and terror for Jenna’s life.
“Hurry where, Ramie? Tell us where. Do you know where he has her?”
Ramie nodded even as tears welled in her eyes. “You have to hurry or there’ll be no hope. He took her to a place a few hours away because his pride was hurt and he got sloppy, thank God. He wanted the chance to discipline her and reprimand her, to bend her to his will before he disappears into the heart of the cartel-controlled district of Mexico. Once he’s there, you’ll never be able to find her, much less get her back.”
“Then where is he now, Ramie?” Dane asked her urgently. “How much time do we have left before he moves her?”
“You have four hours, and the place he’s holding her is three hours away,” she said in defeat.
“Fuck that!” Dane said, fury blasting from every nuance of his body. He was trembling with anger and clenching and unclenching his fists with so much agitation that he looked precariously close to losing his shit.
Isaac was right there beside him.
“We’ll get there in two hours and not a minute later,” Dane vowed. “On my fucking life! Now let’s get the fuck out of here. Go, go, go, god
damn it!”
THIRTY-ONE
THE two black ops groups met with Dane and the DSS agents as Wade’s and Gavin’s men took position at the only other two entry points, while they waited for the report from Shadow’s stealthy recon on where Jenna was located in the building and exactly what they were up against. Mere minutes after Shadow had disappeared, he reappeared to give the results of his surveillance.
“Jesus, this is going to be like taking candy from a baby,” Zeke snorted as he listened to Shadow’s unimpressive rundown of the security he’d evaluated. “The bastard’s ego is a hell of a lot bigger than the size of his army or his strength. We should be in and out in twenty minutes tops.”
Enraged, Isaac curled his fingers into the Kevlar vest Zeke was wearing and slammed him against a tree just behind him. “Shut the fuck up,” he snarled. “When your entire world is being held by a torturing, abusive sick fuck, then let me hear you stand here and brag about taking candy from a baby. Until that day comes, shut your fucking mouth and keep it shut and follow goddamn orders. When I need or want your commentary, I’ll damn well ask for it.”
Not a single man called Isaac down or even attempted to get between him and Zeke. They knew Zeke was way out of line and they didn’t appear to be any happier about it than Isaac was.
Zeke closed his eyes. “I’m sorry, man. That was a shitty thing for me to say. My only defense is that this has to be just any other mission for me or I lose perspective and I don’t do the job I need to do because it becomes personal. My dumb-as-shit remarks were stupid and uncalled for, but it’s what I’d say in any other situation where such a brainless fuck has left himself virtually undefended. Hell, he’s taken out a good portion of his men just so he can force Jenna to watch them die, and from what Shadow is reporting, the rest of his oh-so-loyal followers are having some serious second thoughts, and some are even now sneaking away and abandoning ship before they become his next casualty.”
Isaac let Zeke go and blew out his breath. “I get it. I do. But I don’t have any fucking perspective and as long as Jenna is in there and not here in my arms where I know she’s finally fucking safe, then I’m not going to have any damn perspective.”
“Wouldn’t expect you to, brother,” Shadow murmured, throwing a black look Zeke’s way.
Dane was conferring rapidly with the two leaders of the military groups, and then he turned back to his own men. “The black ops groups are going to make their way in, clear a path as quietly and as undetected as possible. This is what they do. What they’re best at. We need to stand down and let them do their job. When they give me the go signal, then everyone goes at once from all sides. Isaac, from Shadow’s report, Jenna is still in the east wing with Jaysus present. Our objective is to clear any other possible obstacle or threat until we get to where he’s holding her. You’ll go in with Black Ops One while the second black ops group falls back to give support and to make sure no one crawls up our sixes unannounced. Shadow and I will have your six, and everyone else will fall back in a seek-and-protect role.”
Isaac nodded, impatience burning a hole in his gut. At least Dane hadn’t kept him out of the action altogether, especially after his eloquent speech about not having any fucking perspective. Any other time that would get his ass benched faster than he could blink, but they all likely knew the consequences if they even tried it now. Isaac would take on the enemy himself and he’d tear the motherfuckers apart with his bare hands, just as he would destroy any other obstacle between him and his reaching Jenna and getting her to safety.
“We’re a go,” Dane said as the first group moved out, the second falling in behind.
“Fuck, I hate waiting,” Isaac growled.
“We all do,” Dane said in a surly voice Isaac wasn’t used to. “Chaps my ass to have had to call in every marker ever owed to me because we couldn’t get the fucking job done ourselves. That shit’s going to change. If we don’t have the manpower to protect our own women, then something is really wrong. I don’t give a flying fuck what it costs—we’re expanding operations and adding to our numbers, and that means we hire more of the best and only the best. If I have to steal some of the baddest asses from the military, I’ll do it, and if I have to pay for it myself then so be it. It’s bullshit that our women have had to suffer because we got caught with our fucking pants down and outnumbered to boot.”
“You won’t have to pay for it,” Beau growled, surprising everyone with his arrival. “Caleb and I will be more than happy to foot the bill. Our old man had more money than God and he was probably an even bigger asshole than Jaysus, so it’s only fitting that his money be used for something good for a change.”
“What the fuck are you doing here, Beau?” Dane asked in a low, dangerous voice.
“Look, I’m not any happier about it than you, although being stuck on the sidelines while letting the rest of you risk everything for the woman who saved everything precious in my life is also bullshit. But it was either me or Ari, and so I think you see why I’m here and she’s not. The women were pissed that they were being babysat and being kept out of the action. For fuck’s sake, the stubborn woman just got shot and nearly lost our child and I nearly lost them both, and she’s pissed because she wanted in to exact her own brand of revenge for that asshole daring to fuck with her child.”
“Can’t see that I can find much fault in that,” Zeke admitted.
“Righteous,” was Dex’s one-word response.
“Ari sent a message for you, Dane, since she knew you’d have a kitten there was one less person to protect the women. Caleb is there, but my brother is hardly a match for Ari’s powers, so if any protecting is to be done, it will be done by Ari and Eliza. Trust me, she’s pissed. Only my threat to rat her out to her father got her to stand down, although as we speak, she’s plotting retribution with her mother, so I’m fucked either way. She said to tell you that the women are just fine, thank you very much, and that if you spent as much time focusing on your mission to rescue the woman who needs it as you do worrying about the rest of them, Jenna will be just fine and home before the sun rises. I’ll only add here that someone would be a damn fool to take on Ari and Eliza both.”
There was a series of muffled coughs and suppression of laughter as Dane blew out his breath in disgust and shook his head. “Jesus, Beau. Can’t you control your woman at all?”
Beau just lifted his middle finger to Dane in response. “Just wait until you go down, Mr. Smooth. Then we’ll see who controls his woman and who doesn’t. I don’t even know who she is yet, but my money is on her controlling you, hands down.”
“Jesus, I’m glad Lizzie wasn’t here to hear that particular remark, Dane, or you’d be ball-less and singing soprano right now. Lucky for you, Gracie sweet-talked her into staying behind,” Brent said, warily looking around as if worried Lizzie would be the next surprise arrival and had heard the remarks.
Dane scowled at Brent and then threw a Kevlar vest at Beau, smacking him right in the chest. “If you’re going to show up on an op then damn well come prepared. You could have been shot coming in and Jenna would have never made it in time to save your sorry ass.”
“Someone needs a reminder about who signs the fucking checks around here,” Beau muttered even as he suited up.
“Fuck you and your checks,” Dane said sourly.
“Righteous,” Dex repeated, and Isaac merely nodded his agreement.
Isaac had had enough of the chitchat and was growing more impatient by the minute. He knew it had been a few minutes at most since the black ops groups had breached the building, but it seemed like an eternity. He stood there, dying a little more with each breath, as he tensed, waiting with dread to hear the first sound of combat. But the silence stretched on until it felt as though his sanity was slipping away, piece by shattered piece.
He closed his eyes and focused on Jenna’s smile. Her beautiful, unusual eyes, her angelic features, most notably the pale, almost white hair that spilled down her back in unman
ageable curls. He loved her hair, the wildness of it, how it never could be tamed and how it suited her.
I’m coming for you, baby. Please, I’m begging you. Hold on for me. Don’t leave me alone in this world without you. I’ll never survive. I don’t want to survive without you to wake up to every single day for the rest of our lives.
Suddenly Dane straightened, his hand going to his earpiece, his gaze sharpening as he concentrated on the report he was receiving. A split second later, he grabbed his assault rifle in the ready-for-shit-to-get-real position and said, “Time to lock and load. They’ve cleared the bottom floor and are holding on the stairs for Isaac. Jenna hasn’t moved from the east wing and neither has Jaysus.”
He turned back as everyone fell into position, and then he issued another order to Wade and Gavin to have their men take out everything in the west wing and secure it and then make damn sure no one slipped through the cracks.
Isaac’s muscles twitched with nervous energy and the readiness to finally take out the son of a bitch who’d made hunting Jenna down and owning her like some prized possession his obsession. And he was obsessed. With the idea of immortality. Jenna had nailed it right on the head when she’d taunted him with his quest for immortality, as if he were a complete moron to believe any such thing existed and that when he’d gotten wind of her abilities, he’d convinced himself that Jenna could simply keep him alive for eternity. The faulty point in his reasoning, proving what a stupid, unstable fuck he was? The fact that Jenna wouldn’t live forever and when she was gone, the miserable bastard would blessedly have left the earth as well.
No, Jenna wouldn’t live forever, but she sure as damn well was going to live for a very long time, because Isaac was going to make it his life’s obsession to keep her safe, protected, happy and well. If he had to put her in a bulletproof bubble to ensure her protection, then he’d damn well climb into it with her and stay there with her forever.
He swallowed back his sudden insecurity, because Jesus fuck, he was as crazy and obsessed and over the top as Jaysus, only Isaac’s obsession was with making her laugh, smile, giving her every single thing, no matter how large or small, her heart desired from now until the end of their time on earth together. And then he’d simply follow her into the afterlife, where he’d continue driving her every bit as crazy as he knew he’d likely drive her in this lifetime, and he felt not one iota of remorse, nor would he ever apologize, for his brand of obsession.
He didn’t give two fucks what anyone thought or that people would most assuredly think he’d lost his damn mind when it came to Jenna. Some might even draw comparisons between him and Jaysus, the only difference being the motivation behind their obsession with the same woman. All he cared about was what she thought and that she was happy and that she loved him enough to put up with his suffocating, overprotective manner of showering her with all the love he felt for her.
Those thoughts carried him through the entryway to the not very well fortified or defended compound, and finally to the staircase leading up to the east wing where the two military teams had held up. The leader of Team One nodded to Isaac and issued a small salute of respect, then motioned for him to fall in behind his men as they started up the stairs. As Dane had stated, he and Shadow took Isaac’s six while the others fanned out to ensure no one got up those stairs behind them, trapping them between whatever manpower Jaysus had remaining with him and whoever would be coming up the stairs to box them in.
Isaac had absolute confidence not only in his own teammates, whom he knew would give their lives for one another without hesitation, but also in the two black ops groups Dane had managed to pull out of his ass and also the men Wade and Gavin had brought to the table. Having been acquainted with both Wade and Gavin for a while now, he had total respect for the power they wielded and the fact that they put the protection of their loved ones above all else. And now they were extending that protection to Jenna. They spoke of debt they would never be able to repay, but it was Isaac who would be buried under a mountain of debt to so many people that he’d never be able to dig himself out to repay them even if called upon to do so.
They were literally saving his entire life, his entire world.
At the closed door where Shadow had reported Jenna being held by an obviously completely-over-the-edge Jaysus, the leader of Black Ops One held up his hand for the others to hold up. He pressed a device to the door and then put his ear to it and listened closely. Then he frowned.
He held up his hand and gave his men a quick signal.
“He says it’s way too fucking quiet for his liking,” the man standing closest to Isaac said.
Isaac’s heart damn nearly exploded on the spot. Oh dear God, what did that mean? Were they too late? Had he killed her?
The leader mouthed “on my count,” and then quickly attached an explosive device to the door and motioned everyone to take several steps back.
“No mercy,” the leader murmured. “Go in fast and low and take out anyone who isn’t Jenna Wilder. We don’t pull this off just right and he has a chance to kill her. Understand?”
Jesus, did Isaac understand. Sweat made his hands clammy and his chest was about to explode under the force of his heartbeat.
Then the leader did something unexpected. He lifted one eyebrow, and then a look of amusement twisted his lips. What the fuck?
“I tend to forget that not everyone locks the door,” he murmured. “No need to blast our way in and take the risk of getting Jenna killed if we can simply ease the door open and opt for a sneak attack. This idiot has already proved he’s not the smartest tool in the woodshed.”
He motioned everyone into position, pointing at each of the men and ordering them to take a different part of the room so that everything would be covered simultaneously. Then he held up his fingers and signaled “three, two, one,” before he soundlessly eased the door open, cracking it the slightest amount.
They all froze as the door was opened wider in preparation for them to rush the room when they finally heard the heavy silence broken.
“You don’t want to do this.”
Isaac’s brow furrowed and he exchanged “what the fuck” looks with Dane and Shadow. It was Jaysus, a very nervous, scared-shitless Jaysus, sounding as if he were about to piss himself. What the hell was going on?
They froze yet again in the act of moving through the door, only this time, it was Jenna’s voice they heard loud and clear, and so devoid of emotion that it scared Isaac shitless.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she said in a voice Isaac didn’t even recognize. “You have no idea what I want, you worthless piece of a human being.”
“What do you want then?” he asked, stammering and sounding extremely flustered. Then he began begging, and that’s when Isaac knew shit was about to get real. “Please. I’ll give you whatever you want. Anything. Money. Power. You name it and it’s yours.”
“Jesus H. Christ. The man is crying,” the black ops leader said in disgust.
Then they heard the sound of a gun being cocked.
Oh God no. Isaac’s panic flared. They had to get in there now.
“What I want is for you to die,” Jenna said, her voice weak and trembling, but full of conviction. There wasn’t a single man outside that room who didn’t believe her.
“Go, go, go!” the team leader whispered harshly.
They burst into the room and Jaysus whirled around, and oddly, he looked relieved. Did the stupid fuck think they were there to save him?
And then Isaac’s gaze finally found Jenna and his stomach bottomed out. She was bruised, battered and bloody. There were over half a dozen bodies strewn around the room, blood covering the floor in a macabre scene. And she was standing, her entire body rigid, leaning against the wall for support, and she